German strategic documents pay attention to reducing raw materials dependence

Reporter Ni Hao, a special reporter in Germany Zhao Dong

"Compared with oil and natural gas from Russia, Germany's dependence on China's rare earth is even higher," the German "Business Daily" said on the 20th. Strategic documents made suggestions from the German government to get rid of Chinese raw materials. According to the document, three weeks after the outbreak of the Russian conflict, German Foreign Minister Berbek launched the process of formulating the "national security strategy" in Germany. The latest strategic document requires the German government to safely use raw materials as part of the "national security strategy". Specific suggestions include improving the importance of raw material policies, re -inspection of the supply chain law, and improving the government's leading role in rare earth raw materials policies. In addition, the document also requires the government to expand the raw material cooperation network with the third country to fund enterprises that extract and process raw materials within the European Union.

Vaht, the head of the German Industry Federation (BDI) raw material department, said that Germany's dependence on many mineral raw materials from China has surpassed its dependence on oil and natural gas from Russia. The association recommends the German federal government to adopt positive and comprehensive raw material policies.

Data from BDI shows that Germany does depend on Chinese supply in raw materials. For example, 93.5%of rare earth rely on China, graphite (90.4%), 铋 (87.1%), magnesium (79.8%), diamond powder (75.6%), 锑 (68.7%), 镓 (60.6%), manganese (53.8%) (53.8%) (53.8%) (53.8%) (53.8%) (53.8%) (53.8%) ),. (36.1%) and other raw materials, the import dependence on China is also high.

Documents also quote the estimation of the UN Energy Administration that the global demand for lithium and nickels will increase 40 times by 2040. A report from the German Federal Federal Earth Science and Natural Resources Research Institute, which belongs to the German Raw Materials Bureau, studied more than a dozen raw materials that are essential to implement energy transformation. The results of the research are similar: global demand will increase sharply in the next few years, the number of export countries is limited, and China often occupies a dominant position.

At the same time, Germany is committed to promoting carbon neutralization policies and promoting the upgrading of electric vehicles and battery technology, and the demand for raw materials has continued to increase. As a result, the German government hopes that raw materials are more diversified.

The European Union has recently discussed the formulation of regulations to reduce the dependence of raw materials for third countries. The "Business Daily" reported that the European Commission Chairman Feng Deline said: "We import lithium for electric vehicles, platinum for hydrogen -making, silicon for solar modules, and 98%of rare earths from a supplier- - China. This is unsustainable. "

EU internal market commissioner Bretton is promoting a new legislative initiative, the Raw Materials Act, hoping to strengthen the extraction and processing of European raw materials. The German government also supports the plan. The EU Economic Minister has discussed. Bretton told the "Business Daily" that this is not about "self -sufficiency" in Europe, but the risk of reducing the bottleneck of supply. The new raw material method must take multiple ways at the same time.

Mary Lemol, an expert at the Brugar Institute of Brussels Think Tank, said that in principle, there are three ways to reduce their dependence on individual suppliers. People can import raw materials to diversify, establish local production, or recycle products through more places to develop other technologies to obtain raw materials.

"Germany and the European Union do this first because of the new crown pneumonia's epidemic, and it directly responds to the uncertainty of the supply chain. But this also reflects the increasingly complex attitude towards Europe in China." Dong Yifan, an associate researcher at the European Research Institute of the Chinese Institute of Modern International Relations, told the reporter of the Global Times on the 21st that including the major EU countries, and in terms of raw materials or industrial chains, they had an unrealistic concern in China.

Many observers believe that it is huge that Germany and the European Union to reduce their dependence on the raw materials of third countries, even more difficult than reducing energy dependence. This process may take a long time. In fact, due to the needs of internal market development in many countries in the world, raw material exports are reducing raw materials. The import and export of raw materials require more international cooperation.

Dong Yifan believes that the close and extensive industrial cooperation between the European Union and China is formed in the long -term cooperation in the market. It is difficult to be broken by the close economic and trade cooperation and industrial cooperation between China and the European Europe. Forcibly disrupting normal industrial cooperation relationships, European companies are also inevitable. ▲

- END -