morning juice short squeeze anyone?, page-49

warhorse = "Why would China possibly import rare earths when they have enough idle capacity to increase their own supply by 2-3x? "

The answer is the same as Why China import Coal & Iron ore when they have plenty? Dont forget that Japan invaded Manchuria and China for such resource and the resource rich country = WWII.

The fact is China with its huge population, production and consuming potential does not have enough resources to satisfy its rapid growth. eg Car & vehicle production more than the ROW combined. Power & Green power generation, Fast train, Infrastructure, homes, electrical appliances, electronics... etc etc. ...more than the ROW combined.

China is in a very rapid catch up phase with technology.
China has the popn, human resource and rapidly advancing technical knowhow to produce for the nation huge ambition.
All resources that China has is not enough to meet such rapid growth.

China economy is now #2 due to the rapid growth. Even with the planned growth of 7.5%, China production and consumption will surpass the ROW combined.