The People’s Republic of China restricts the export of gallium and germanium. From August 1st, licenses will be required for every export. The trade war between the People’s Republic of China and western countries is becoming more intense. The step is likely to be a reaction to the fact that the Dutch world market leader ASML is only allowed to sell old lithography systems to China under pressure from the USA.
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Officially, China justifies the new export license system for the rare metals with national security. The country dominates the production of these two metals, which are of great importance for the energy transition and digitization. Europe is also dependent on Chinese producers for supplies of gallium and germanium. How high the Chinese export quotas will be is not known. In any case, the purchase will be more expensive and, thanks to the approval process that lasts for months, also slower.
Digitization, energy transition, military
Germanium is important for solar cells, computer chips and infrared lenses, for example. This means that the metal is also important for the military, as it is used for night vision devices and certain satellite sensors. Gallium (especially as gallium arsenide) is important for high-frequency technology components such as those used in mobile phones, radar or satellites. Gallium arsenide is also of considerable importance for heat-resistant chips, light and laser diodes, solar cells for satellites, fiber optic networks and certain scientific research.
For years, the United States of America has been trying to restrict China’s access to modern computer chips. To ensure that this embargo does not lose its effect, Washington is now considering a ban on high-end cloud services for customers in the People’s Republic of China. This in turn ventilates additional export restrictions, namely for rare earth elements. They are important, for example, for accumulators, electric motors, wind power generators, light-emitting diodes, screens, lasers, radars, glass fibers or contrast media for magnetic resonance imaging. Here, too, the influence is not only obvious on military matters, but also on digitalization and the energy transition.
Germanium is a by-product of zinc extraction, but it can also be extracted from the fly ash of coal-fired power plants. China produces more than half of the germanium available on the world market. Gallium is mainly produced in aluminum production. When it comes to gallium, China even dominates at 80 percent. Only a few manufacturers worldwide offer gallium arsenide in the purity required for electronics.
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