You might not want to start a trade war with a country that supplies many of your vital minerals and metals. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
The Trump administration’s additional 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports took effect Tuesday, prompting Beijing to fire back with retaliatory measures, including tariffs on US goods, antitrust probes on US big tech firms, entity list additions, and export controls on critical minerals.
Focusing on export controls on critical metals, Beijing imposed restrictions on key minerals such as tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium, along with certain metallic compounds derived from them.
Days later, Bloomberg’s Annie Lee spoke with Lewis Black, chief executive officer of North America’s Almonty Industries, who stated his customer base is in a “state of disbelief” after Beijing’s export controls on the metal used in electronics, defense systems, and machinery.
“It’s the warning shot, because we cannot exist without it,” Black told Lee. He noted: “Our economy, manufacturing, defense, everything, is so dependent on it. And yet, Russia, China and North Korea have about 90% of the output.“
Shares of Almonty in the US have surged 40% in recent days. The company describes itself as “the largest tungsten mining company in the world outside of China.”
