Supply of Rare Earth Elements might be shrinking up to 72%

Recently there were numerous discussions and speculations on the shrinking supply of rare earth elements.

Those elements are used in many different applications from hard disks over cars to iPods. Supply for the world demand is curently dominated by China, which delivers about 97 percent.

The BVL (German Logistics and Supply Chain Association) just published in their recent news letter that China is reducing their exports by 72 percent to only about 8000 tons for the second half of 2010.

According to different sources (reports by the EU an UN) the rebuilding of sourcing alternatives can take up to 15 years.