Beijing Plans to Curb Export of Technology Used to Extract Minerals for Electric Vehicle Industry
Beijing is set to restrict the export of technology used to extract minerals critical for the growth of the global electric vehicle (EV) industry, as a tech rivalry with Washington escalates ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump later this month.
According to a notice published by the Commerce Ministry, China is also planning to add battery cathode technology to its list of controlled exports, on top of the proposed restrictions on technology related to producing lithium and gallium. The measures are expected to form a future round of export controls imposed by China on a slew of critical materials and technology needed to produce them, which are crucial for manufacturing semiconductors and EV batteries.
The aim of the measure is “to strengthen technology import and export management,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. When asked about the proposal, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said that China implements fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory export control measures.
China’s plan was announced a month after it banned the sale of a number of materials crucial for the production of semiconductors and other tech, including gallium, germanium, antimony, and other “super hard” materials, to the US, in response to fresh export controls on US-made semiconductors imposed by the outgoing Joe Biden administration.
The proposed measures would help China retain its “70% grip” on the global processing of lithium, according to Adam Webb, head of battery raw materials at consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. “These proposed measures would be a move to maintain this high market share and to secure lithium chemical production for China’s domestic battery supply chains,” he said.
China dominates the global industry for materials such as gallium, a soft metal commonly used to produce compounds that can make radio frequency chips for mobile phones and satellite communication. Lithium, another metal, is ubiquitous in daily life because it is used to make batteries for everything from smartphones and laptops to EVs.
While an iPhone needs only a small amount of lithium, an average EV battery needs about eight kilograms (18 pounds) of it. Global demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to soar over the next 10 years, with the number of gigawatt hours required growing from about 700 in 2022 to around 4,700 by 2030.