China Dials Up US Trade Tension With Tit-for-Tat Metals Ban

(Bloomberg) —

Most Read from Bloomberg

China ratcheted up trade tensions with the US with a ban on several materials with high-tech and military applications, in a tit-for-tat move after President Joe Biden’s government escalated technology curbs on Beijing.

Gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials are no longer allowed to be shipped to America, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday. Beijing will also place tighter controls on sales of graphite, it added.

The targeted metals are used in everything from semiconductors to satellites and night-vision goggles. However, Chinese sales to the US had already plunged in the wake of earlier export curbs announced last year.

The move came after the White House on Monday slapped fresh curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory chips made by US and foreign companies to China. The Biden administration’s goal is to slow China’s development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.

China is the top global supplier of dozens of critical minerals, and concerns about its dominance have been growing in Washington since the country placed initial controls on exports on gallium and germanium last year. That move sent prices spiking and upended trade flows as US manufacturers sought alternative supplies, while miners raced to tap new deposits and politicians sought to replenish national strategic reserves.

Following the global restrictions that China imposed on the two metals last year, several buyers of the materials — including Globalwafers Co, Lumentum Holdings Inc, and Coherent Corp — said they didn’t expect near-term disruptions because the industry had ample inventories to fall back on, and alternative sources of supply could be found.

There were zero reported exports of the metals to the US this year, which suggests that American industries were instead drawing on inventories or procuring the metal from other sources.

China is opposed to the outgoing US administration broadening its “illegal” unilateral sanctions, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday at a meeting with visiting delegates from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

“We urge the US side to do more things that would help stabilize the bilateral relationship, and hope that the new administration will take a good first step in China-US interactions in the next four years,” he said.

In a report last month, the US Geological Survey said any total export ban on gallium and germanium would deliver a $3.4 billion hit to the US economy.

“Export bans on critical minerals have been in the hopper for some time and are intended as a warning,” said Joe Mazur, senior analyst with consulting firm Trivium China. “It’s a clear signal that China is preparing to strike back more forcefully against US economic pressure than it has in the past few years.”

The measures announced by the US on Monday blacklisted 140 additional Chinese entities accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, with a focus on companies that produce chip manufacturing equipment that’s crucial to China’s pursuit of semiconductor self-sufficiency.

Separately on Tuesday, three Chinese industry associations — representing the internet, semiconductor and auto sectors — urged Chinese companies to choose carefully when buying chips from US.

–With assistance from Colum Murphy, Winnie Zhu, Dan Murtaugh and Josh Xiao.

(Updates with details throughout.)