China banned exports of several critical minerals to the United States in December, but enterprising American buyers have found ways to obtain the metals through third-party nations like Thailand and Mexico, and some Chinese companies have proven willing to work around the ban.
China banned exports of antimony, gallium, germanium, and some other materials at the end of the Biden administration, in retaliation for U.S. restrictions on sales of advanced computer chips to China.
China restricted exports of the same minerals for a few months in 2023 to demonstrate its control of the crucial supply chain. Antimony is used in batteries, solar panels, and flame-retardant materials, while gallium and germanium are used to produce semiconductors. China is the dominant global supplier of all three, with both copious mines and the lion’s share of processing facilities.
Two U.S. company executives and a minerals industry expert told Reuters on Wednesday that American buyers were able to reroute their shipments through other countries without missing a beat, through methods that should be painfully obvious to anyone who glances at the export data:
The U.S. imported 3,834 metric tons of antimony oxides from Thailand and Mexico between December and April, U.S. customs data show. That was more than almost the previous three years combined.
Thailand and Mexico, meanwhile, shot into the top three export markets for Chinese antimony this year, according to Chinese customs data through May. Neither made the top 10 in 2023, the last full year before Beijing restricted exports.
Thailand and Mexico each have a single antimony smelter, according to consultancy RFC Ambrian, and the latter’s only reopened in April. Neither country mines meaningful quantities of the metal.
Reuters reported in June that U.S. battery makers are nervous about their dwindling stockpiles of antimony, regarding it as a “national emergency.”
The flow through third-party countries for that particular metal is evidently not quite generous enough to keep up with soaring demand. China’s ban on antimony in December happened too suddenly for American battery companies to build up an emergency inventory.
Many of the shipments procured after December came through “grey market” suppliers, who charge much higher prices. China maintains its monopoly by aggressively buying antimony from other countries to feed its huge solar panel industry, which drives up prices for the remaining supply of metal.
The Trump administration has prioritized developing domestic supplies of antimony and building up refining capacity, a plan scheduled to begin with the revival of a huge antimony mine in Idaho. There are few other existing sources of the metal on U.S. territory that could be easily tapped, although long-range plans could include exploration in Alaska, Montana, and Nevada as well as Idaho.
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