Beijing exacerbates its grip on the latest Chinese technology and aims to keep the critical know-how within its limits, as the trade voltages escalate with the USA and Europe.
In the past few months, the Chinese authorities have made it difficult for some engineers and devices to leave the country, propose new export controls for storing important battery technologies, and have applied for the technologies for the processing of critical minerals, according to several industrial numbers and ministry.
The leading technologies are secured by the country in the middle of tariffs of US President Donald Trump and a trade line with Europe via cars that threatened to sports more local and foreign groups in order to move production elsewhere.
To the companies that have scored goals to India.
The people familiar with the matter said that Chinese officials had made it difficult for the Taiwanese contract manufacturer to send machines and technical Chinese managers to India, where Apple wanted to build up its supply chain.
A manager at another Taiwanese electronics company said that they too faced challenges to send some devices from China in plants in India, even though he found the programs to Southeast Asia.
An Indian official claimed that China had used customs delays to hinder the flow of components and devices in the south. “The actors in the electronic industry were instructed not to set up production and assembly transactions in India,” said the official and asked not to be named. The World Media Page used to report some problems from Foxconn.
Analysts say that Beijing’s up -and -coming Playbook resembles the western Tech transfer restrictions, which it has loudly criticized as unfair. The informal controls seem to be directed in particular on the geopolitical rivals of India, with some Chinese groups say that projects in Southeast Asia and the Middle East remain unaffected. Beijing also has increasingly formal export restrictions on key technologies that apply worldwide.
“A strong supply chain and qualified workforce are some of the few advantages that China still has today,” said an investor in a company that deals with problems with some technical engineers abroad. “You don’t want to lose that to other countries.”
Last month, China’s Ministry of Commerce proposed restrictions on the export of technologies in connection with lithium extraction and for the production of advanced battery materials in which the country has a leading position.
“China builds up a large muscle for export control and is quite aware of what you want to control,” said Antonia Hmaidi, Senior Analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. “Basically, it is about keeping China of central importance for global supply chains”, she said.
According to Hmaidi, Beijing often aimed at areas near the top of the supply chain, in which Chinese groups controlled materials and technological processes, while end products were uncontrolled.
Cory Combs at the Trivium China advice said that the Beijing interventions in the battery supply chain were “a new class of export controls”.
If the takeover is complete, the controls could prevent China’s battery giant with factories in Europe from moving their entire supply chain abroad. Groups such as CATL may still have to import battery materials such as Advanced Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) cathodes from China instead of producing or buying them on site, according to a person who was informed in this matter.
The Chinese breakthroughs in LFP technology underpinned the increase in its batteries and displaced the South Korean and Japanese groups, which once dominated the battery industry.
After trying to catch up, Korean groups had started to work together and buy LFP cathodes from China, which had produced 99 percent of all LFP cathodes -shares last year, as Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
The new controls could threaten these business. A spokesman for a leading Korean battery producer who asked that his company was not named said that they had announced their concerns about the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
“We cannot rule out some adverse effects on our partnership with a Chinese company if the guidelines do not reflect our concerns,” said the person.
Sam Adham, head of battery research at the analysis company Cru Group, said: “The Koreans need high-end-Chinese technology, but (with the new export controls) you may only be able to access the technologies of last year- is currently on the streets. “
The outlined curbs for exporting lithium extraction technology could make developments from the USA difficult to South America. A person near Catl said that the group had to apply for export licenses to use Chinese technology in a USD 1.4 billion in Bolivia to extract lithium from the country’s salvation.
Anna Ashton, founder of China Focused Consultancy Ashton Analytics, said that the Chinese groups did pioneering work to extract and process lithium -rich salt from deep surface, which made many new mining projects.
“Ironically, it is currently the most efficient means of not obtaining Chinese sources for dismantled and processed lithium online,” she said.
In strategic materials and minerals, Beijing has gradually included its curbs in order to restrict the key elements of the key elements such as rare earths, tungsten and tellur in order to also restrict the technologies used for their extraction, refinement or processing.
In December 2023, China further expanded the controls to the technology and processes that transform the refined rare earth into metals and permanent magnets in electric vehicles, wind turbines and electronics.
“China produces about 95 percent of the world’s constant magnets,” said an employee of a US group who set up an alternative supply chain.
“The net effect of these export controls is that industrial diversification is restricted in some of these supply chains.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce did not answer a request for a comment. Foxconn and Cat refused to comment.
Additional reporting by Gloria Li in Hong Kong, Song Jung-A in Seoul, Nian Liu in Beijing
