Europe’s auto parts suppliers suspend output due to China’s rare earth curbs

Robotic arms on the Peugeot vehicle assembly line at the Stellantis NV auto plant in Sochaux, France, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. Stellantis is struggling with slowing and more competitive auto markets across Europe, where electric-vehicle demand is waning. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg)

Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and German carmaker BMW warned its supplier network was affected by shortages of rare earths, as concerns about the damage from China’s restrictions on critical mineral exports deepen.

China’s decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

The move underscores China’s dominance of the critical mineral industry, key to the green energy transition, and is seen as leverage by China in its ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. China produces around 90% of the world’s rare earths.

On Wednesday, German carmaker BMW said that part of its supplier network was affected by the shortage in rare earths, but that its own plants were running as normal.

Europe’s auto supplier association CLEPA said several production lines have been shut down due to rare earths shortages, the latest to warn about the growing threat to manufacturing due to the curb.

Of the hundreds of requests for export licenses made by auto suppliers since early April, only a quarter have been granted so far, CLEPA added, with some requests rejected on what the association described as “highly procedural grounds.”

It did not identify the companies but warned of further outages.

“Procedures seem to vary from province to province and in several instances IP-sensitive information has been requested,” it said, adding that if the process was not streamlined soon, more plants would likely be affected in the next three to four weeks as inventories depleted.

While China’s announcement in April coincided with a broader package of retaliation against Washington’s tariffs, the curbs apply globally and are causing worry among business executives around the world.

German and U.S. automakers have complained that restrictions by China are threatening production, following a similar grievance from an Indian EV maker last week.

Many are lobbying their governments to find a quick solution and scrambling to find alternatives.

Some companies only have supplies to last a few weeks or months, Wolfgang Weber, CEO of Germany’s electrical and digital industry association ZVEI, said in an emailed statement.

“Companies currently feel abandoned by politicians and are partly looking for solutions to their difficult situation on their own in China,” he said.

Swedish Autoliv, the world’s biggest maker of airbags and seatbelts, said its operations are not affected, but CEO Mikael Bratt said he has set up a task force to manage the situation.

Reliance on China

Automakers from General Motors to BMW and major suppliers like ZF and BorgWarner are researching or have developed motors with low- to zero rare earth content in a bid to cut their reliance on China, but few have managed to scale production to bring down costs.

BMW has deployed a magnet-free electric motor for its latest generation of electric cars, but still requires rare earths for smaller motors powering components like windshield wipers or car window rollers.

German carmaker Volkswagen has received indications that a limited number of Chinese rare earth export licenses have been granted to subcontractors and the company is not seeing any shortages at the moment, it said on Wednesday.

China’s slow pace of easing its critical mineral export controls has become a focus of Trump’s criticism of Beijing, which he says has violated the truce reached last month to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

Trump has sought to redefine the trading relationship with the United States’ biggest economic rival China by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing.

Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after a selloff in stock, bond and currency markets over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week to try and iron out their differences and the export curbs are expected to be high on the agenda.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said that Xi is “VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH,” highlighting the fragility of the deal.

Reporting by Victoria Waldersee in Berlin, Marie Mannes in Stockholm. Additional reporting by Hakan Ersen in Frankfurt.

Writing by Josephine Mason in London. Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise.