{"id":123506,"date":"2011-08-24T13:36:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T20:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=123506"},"modified":"2011-08-24T13:36:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-24T20:36:47","slug":"chasing-rare-earths-foreign-companies-expand-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/08\/chasing-rare-earths-foreign-companies-expand-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Rare Earths, Foreign Companies Expand in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
China’s policy on rare earth minerals<\/a>, used in the manufacturing of numerous high-tech goods including cell phones and hybrid cars, has been under scrutiny over the past year as the country holds a near monopoly on the resource, which is in high demand around the world. Now foreign companies are increasingly opening factories in China to process the materials, the New York Times reports<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n \nCompanies like Showa Denko and Santoku of Japan and Intematix of the United States are adding new factory capacity in China this year instead of elsewhere because they need access to the raw materials, known as rare earth metals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the writing on the wall \u2014 we simply bought the equipment and ramped up in China to begin with,\u201d said Mike Pugh, director of worldwide operations for Intematix, who noted that the company would have preferred to build its new factory near its Fremont, Calif., headquarters.<\/p>\n While seemingly obscure, China\u2019s policy on rare earths appears to be directed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself, according to Chinese officials and documents. Mr. Wen, a geologist who studied rare earths at graduate school in Beijing in the 1960s, has led at least two in-depth reviews of rare earths this year at the State Council, China\u2019s cabinet. And during a visit to Europe last autumn, he said that little happened on rare earth policy without him.<\/p>\n China\u2019s tactics on rare earths probably violate global trade rules, according to governments and business groups around the world. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China’s policy on rare earth minerals, used in the manufacturing of numerous high-tech goods including cell phones and hybrid cars, has been under scrutiny over the past year as the country holds a near monopoly on the resource, which is in high demand around the world. Now foreign companies are increasingly opening factories in China […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,2,100,6],"tags":[625,633,16465,8164],"class_list":["post-123506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-economy","category-politics","category-sci-tech","tag-exports","tag-high-tech","tag-rare-earth","tag-rare-metals","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n