The increase in price of rare earth elements together with the tense delivery situation is a cause for concern for the German trade association (ZVEI). At the moment some German companies are seeing price increases of up to ten times more. “By the middle of next year this difficult situation could become even worse”, according to the chairman of the ZVEI executive board, Dr. Klaus Mittelbach. “The increases in the price of rare earth elements increase the production costs of innovative, energy-efficient electric drives and motors to some extent quite considerably”.
All the electrical companies questioned in a ZVEI survey stated that they are either completely unable or at best only partially able to pass on increased raw material costs. Rare earth elements are also necessary for renewable energy sources (in particular wind power stations) and electric mobility. They can only be replaced by other materials to a very limited extent. At the moment 97% of all rare earth elements come from China.
The ZVEI therefore recommends investigating the possibility of acquiring additional capacity from outside China. In addition, the activities of companies in Germany with regard to recycling and achieving greater raw material efficiency should be supported.
