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The corona pandemic has already revealed how risky dependencies on exposed countries and critical supply chains can be in the event of a crisis. The new dilemma: The more Europe tries to break away from Russian natural gas through alternative energies, the greater the dependency on strategic metals.
The most recent developments, especially with regard to Russia, have made this finding much more acute: the previous world order is becoming increasingly unstable and there is a risk of the world economy splitting up into separate hemispheres.
In particular for "high-tech metals" and "rare earths" such as neodymium, the associated distortions are of great importance, especially since these "strategic metals" are absolutely indispensable for important future technologies. Germany, in particular, relies heavily on imports, particularly from China and Russia, for these commodities. This concentration makes us vulnerable, as the current gas crisis in Europe shows very clearly. The publication “High-Tech Metals and Rare Earths – Acute Commodity Risks for Europe’s Future” provides a well-founded analysis of this highly explosive global risk factor.