According to Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, the motor giant – Nidec Corporation has announced that it will launch products that do not use heavy rare earths as soon as this fall. Rare earth resources are mostly distributed in China, which will reduce the geopolitical risk of trade frictions leading to obstacles in procurement.
Nidec uses rare earths such as heavy rare earth “dysprosium” in the magnet part of the motor, and the countries where they can be purchased are limited. In order to achieve stable production of electric motors, we are promoting the development of magnets and related technologies that do not use heavy rare earths.
Rare earths are accused of causing environmental pollution during the mining process. Some customers have high expectations for products that do not use rare earths in consideration of business and environmental protection.
Although the production cost will rise, there are strong demands from automakers for delivery.
Japan has been trying to reduce its dependence on China’s rare earths. The Japanese government will start research and development of deep-sea rare earth mud technology in South Bird Island, and plans to start trial mining as early as 2024. Chen Yang, a visiting researcher at the Japanese Research Center of Liaoning University, said in an interview with Satellite News Agency that mining deep-sea rare earths is not an easy task, facing many difficulties such as technical difficulties and environmental protection issues, so it is difficult to do it in the short to medium term.
Rare earth elements are a general term for 17 special elements. Because of their unique physical and chemical properties, they are widely used in new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, aerospace, electronic information and other fields. They are indispensable and important elements in modern industry. At present, China has undertaken more than 90% of the world’s market supply with 23% of rare earth resources. Japan currently relies on imports for almost all of its rare metal needs, 60 percent of which comes from China.
Post time: Feb-28-2023