China is currently the dominant supplier of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and is using that position to pressure manufacturers of batteries and high performance electric motors. The attached PDF from Stratfor Global Intelligence is a review of the situation and how it is affecting suppliers of major components of our hybrid cars and future EVs. "Presently, the Toyota Prius uses roughly one kilogram of neodymium" about $20 today but at pre China production prices this would rise to about $450. JeffD
This is another example of the free market being manipulated to put us in a bad situation. It's a classic move: large scale production lowers costs, flood the market and drive out competition, end up controlling the market. Tom
We talk about spreading democracy and free market around the world until those other countries catch on to the whole supply/demand part.
