From Delhi's Mint news, December 16:
NEW DELHI : Germany’s offshore wind industry, rattled by China’s grip over rare earth magnets, is beginning to look beyond Beijing—and India has emerged as a possible alternative. As geopolitical risks mount and supply chains come under strain, German companies are exploring whether India can help diversify sourcing of a critical input for Europe’s clean energy push, according to two people aware of the discussions.
The interest is still at an early, exploratory stage. Last month, during a visit by a German delegation led by Johann Saathoff, parliamentary state secretary to Germany’s federal minister for economic cooperation and development, the possibility of collaborating with India on manufacturing rare earth magnets was discussed with the Indian government, the people said.
The talks matter because rare earth magnets are essential for offshore wind turbines, and China controls about 90% of global processing capacity, making Europe heavily dependent on a single supplier. India, which has one of the world’s largest rare earth reserves and is building domestic magnet-making capacity that could exceed its own demand, is positioning itself as a potential alternative supplier.
“Germany is completely reliant on China for supply of rare earth magnets. The offshore wind players are now looking at diversifying their supply chain and want to explore if India could meet their demand," said one of the two people cited above....
....MUCH MORE
Europe in general and Germany in particular have to move much, much faster than they have in the last decade if they are to maintain any sort of manufacturing base and avoid the fate seen in the outro from December 9's "JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’":
There are early indications that the EU could become a Chinese satrapy.
And then? It appears that one of Beijing's options is to let Europe die on the vine and wither away as a business center, with Shenzhen, Shanghai and even Hainan island assuming some of the various roles that Europe has played over the years.
And if Europe is no longer independent of China it faces the possibility of becoming a colonial backwater but one that is so overbuilt it ends up as an urban hellscape.Which, of course, would be ironic as all get out, the quintessential (in popular imagination) colonizer becoming a colony. For some reason I think of those South American outposts of industry that served their extractive purpose and were left to be reclaimed by nature....
Or worse, become a a Teutonic Belarus.
But without the charm.
