By Lewis Jackson, Ashitha Shivaprasad and Amy Lv
BEIJING (Reuters) -China announced sweeping export restrictions on Tuesday on five metals used across defence, clean energy and other industries, minutes after an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump came into effect.
The restrictions are the latest attempt by China since 2023 to weaponise its dominance in the mining and processing of critical minerals used in everything from smartphones and electric car batteries to infrared missiles and ammunition.
The new controls, which came into effect immediately, cover the metals tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, indium and molybdenum and their related products. They are used in products ranging from solar panels to artillery shells.
The Commerce Ministry said the controls were to “safeguard national security interests,” in a statement released shortly after the United States imposed a further round of tariffs on Chinese imports.
It had flagged on Jan. 16 that it would strengthen export controls this year.
While the controls stop short of an outright ban, exports are likely to drop sharply as companies scramble to get export licenses, a process that takes roughly six weeks.
The experience of previous rounds of export restrictions suggests shipments should recover, albeit slowly, as the licenses are granted.
However, it remains to be seen whether U.S. importers will qualify for licenses. The United States stopped mining tungsten in 2015 and has not produced refined bismuth since 1997, relying in both cases on imports.
The price of tungstate APT, a compound used in production of various tungsten products, hit its highest level since 2014 at the end of January.
An index which tracks indium prices outside China hovered near decade-high levels at the same time.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong, Lewis Jackson and Amy Lv in Beijing, Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bangalore; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sonali Paul)
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