Japanese electronics factory on the brink of bankruptcy, admits it can't import Chinese rare earths and demands the country to intervene immediately!
Recently, a small and medium-sized electronics manufacturing company in Japan named "Himeji Electronics" publicly revealed its survival crisis, not because of market shrinkage or technological backwardness, but because they couldn't buy rare earths from China.
According to the company's disclosure, after China strengthened its rare earth export controls at the end of last year, they could barely maintain the import of raw materials for one-third of their orders. At that time, inventory could last two months, and management once thought it was just a short-term fluctuation. However, within just two weeks, the situation took a drastic turn: the import of rare earth raw materials from China almost reached zero. Worse still, they have a factory in Jiangsu that specializes in producing rare earth magnets, and now even the finished products produced by themselves cannot be transported back to Japan.
Himeji Electronics tried to switch to purchasing from Australia or Vietnam, but found that the price doubled directly, the delivery cycle was extended, and the purity and consistency of the raw materials were far inferior to Chinese products. For electronic component manufacturers with already thin profit margins, this cost shock is almost fatal.
China currently controls more than 60% of the global rare earth mining volume, and more importantly, it has mastered nearly 90% of the rare earth refining and processing capabilities. Elements such as neodymium and dysprosium, which are key to high-performance permanent magnets, have almost no other place in the world that can supply them at the same cost, scale, and purity stably.
More troubling is that rare earth magnets are widely used in core components such as car motors, air conditioner compressors, and hard disk drives. If the supply is cut off, it's not only Himeji Electronics that will stop production, but also the cooperating car manufacturers and home appliance manufacturers downstream may have to adjust their production lines. In other words, a shortage of a small magnet could trigger a chain reaction throughout the entire manufacturing industry.
Facing this situation, the president of Himeji Electronics directly called for the government to intervene, especially for Takahashi Hayato to take action. But the reality is that Takahashi Hayato cannot retract her statements, and even if she did, it would not be possible to restore relations in a short period of time. Even though Japan has invested heavily in rare earth projects in Africa and Southeast Asia in recent years, it would take at least three to five years from exploration to mass production. Now Takahashi Hayato has to pay for her own words.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855801012315348/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.