Yttrium's 125-Fold Price Gap Looms Over Trump-Xi Talks in Shenzhen
AI Summary
China's yttrium export licensing restrictions are tightening supply, with a reported 125-fold price gap highlighting the pressure on buyers. The issue could weigh on Trump-Xi talks in Shenzhen, while Beijing's extension of a pause on broader rare-earth export controls does not cover the separate rules affecting yttrium.
China bought itself two more months on Monday by extending the pause on its sweeping October 2025 rare earth export controls to Jan. 10, Reuters reported, but the metal squeezing buyers hardest right now was never covered by it. That metal is yttrium, which sits under a separate set of licensing rules Beijing imposed in April 2025 on seven medium and heavy rare earths. When the pause began last November, the law firm Pillsbury listed those April rules among the measures still in force, which makes the extension a cheap gift: the October measures…