China’s gallium grip looms over Trump’s Beijing visit as critical deadline nears

As US President Donald Trump prepares for a possible visit to China in April, analysts say that one issue is likely to “cast a shadow” over his looming negotiations with Beijing: America’s need to maintain access to supplies of gallium and other strategic resources.

With China’s suspension of a ban on exports of gallium and several other metals to the US set to expire in November, the Trump administration’s immediate goal in any trade talks would be to avoid escalating tensions over critical minerals – allowing America to buy time as it races to develop alternative sources of supply, they said.

As with other crucial raw materials, such as heavy rare earths, China still holds a dominant position in the global market for gallium – a metal that is widely used in a range of hi-tech industries, from semiconductors to solar cells and electric cars.

China accounts for nearly 99 per cent of global primary production of gallium, according to a report by the mining firm Cerro de Pasco Resources. The US sources 100 per cent of its gallium from overseas, with about 95 per cent of those imports coming from China, according to Minerals Make Life, a project run by the US National Mining Association.

After Beijing and Washington agreed to a so-called trade truce last November, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a notice suspending a ban on shipping gallium, germanium and antimony to the US for one year.

But the country’s export control regime remained in place, and the suspension is timed to expire on November 27 – meaning the ban would theoretically kick in once again after that date.

South China Morning Post