How China Is Sparking a Battery Crisis
Antimony is a material critical to lead-acid battery manufacturing, and China's export restrictions on this critical mineral, implemented last summer, have battery makers under pressure. Lead-acid batteries in the automotive industry are most commonly found in gas-powered vehicles and are used for functions like engine starts and powering low-voltage instruments such as dashboard displays. Antimony is also used in EV lead-acid batteries and flame-retardant materials.
According to Reuters, Antimony now costs more than $60,000 per metric ton, which is more than quadruple its year-over-year price. In 2024, China produced 60% of the world's antimony supply, and several countries that mine the mineral process it in China. Beijing added antimony to its export control list last September, and companies now need a license for overseas deals. Additionally, China banned U.S. antimony exports in December, which remains in effect. China's global antimony exports are now a third of last year's.
U.S. companies are responding with gray market antimony purchases or buying at elevated prices from sellers who pre-accumulated stockpiles. Last week, China and the U.S. reached a deal on rare earth exports, which the automotive industry heavily relies on for magnets used in several vehicle parts, but antimony doesn't appear to have been discussed between the two countries. Like antimony, China has a monopoly on rare earths, but at a higher percentage than antimony, with 70% of mining and 90% of processing occurring domestically.
Steve Christensen, executive director of the U.S.-based Responsible Battery Coalition, labeled the antimony situation a national emergency and said Western countries have become "Overly reliant on a single geopolitical adversary for minerals foundational to both national defense and civilian life," Reuters reports. Christensen added: "For the U.S., the path forward must include onshoring processing capacity, scaling domestic recycling, and building strategic mineral alliances with trusted partners. Otherwise, this crisis will repeat itself again and again."
Clarios, a U.S.-based global leader in battery manufacturing, disclosed last month that it was considering locations for a critical minerals processing and recovery plant in the U.S. that would extract antimony, among other minerals. The facility would cost up to $1.9 billion, and Indiana, Texas, and Utah are emerging as potential locations. Antimony is listed by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a mineral critical to the U.S. economy and national security. The U.S. Antimony market size is expected to rise from $270 million in 2024 to $550 million by 2035, with a 6.82% growth rate, according to Market Research Future. Overall, antimony demand is around 230,000-240,000 tons a year, with lead-acid batteries accounting for about a third of that, Reuters reports using data from consultancy Project Blue.
Antimony remains essential in the automotive industry as more car manufacturers extend timelines for gas-powered vehicle production and use the critical mineral in the growing EV segment. Securing a stable supply of antimony and rare earths for magnets is vital in avoiding future bottlenecks from countries like China. If the U.S. doesn't diversify its antimony supply chains and help facilitate competition within the market, production costs could continue to increase at a time when car prices are already high, and segments like EVs could experience slowed growth.
Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
6 hours ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk says xAI will retrain Grok: 'Far too much garbage'
When you're Elon Musk, you don't have to rely on centuries of prevailing human understanding — you can create your own. "We will use Grok 3.5 (maybe we should call it 4), which has advanced reasoning, to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors," Musk wrote on X on Friday night. Then, he said he would retrain Grok's latest model on that new base of knowledge to be free of proverbial waste. "Far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data," he added. Musk has for years endeavored to create products, like the rebranded Twitter and Grok, that are free from what he views as harmful mainstream constraints. Business Insider previously reported that Grok's army of "AI tutors" was training the bot on a host of dicey topics to compete with OpenAI's more "woke" ChatGPT. Musk on Saturday asked X users to respond to his post with examples of "divisive facts" that can be used in Grok's retraining. Gary Marcus, an AI hype critic and professor emeritus at New York University, compared Musk's effort to an Orwellian dystopia, which isn't the first time he's made the comparison. "Straight out of 1984. You couldn't get Grok to align with your own personal beliefs, so you are going to rewrite history to make it conform to your views," he wrote on X in response to Musk. A revamped Grok could have real-world impacts. In May, just as Musk was stepping back from his work in Washington, DC to refocus on his various companies, Reuters reported that DOGE was planning to expand its use of Grok to analyze government data. "They ask questions, get it to prepare reports, give data analysis," a source told Reuters, referring to how the bot was being used. Two other sources told the outlet that officials in the Department of Homeland Security had been encouraged to use it despite the fact that it hadn't been approved. A representative for the department told the New Republic that "DOGE hasn't pushed any employees to use any particular tools or products." Grok has also had security issues. In May, after what the company said was an "unauthorized modification" to its backend, the bot started to frequently refer to "white genocide" in South Africa. The company quickly resolved the issue and said it had conducted a "thorough investigation" and was "implementing measures to enhance Grok's transparency and reliability."
USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Customer data possibly leaked in Aflac cyberattack, the third insurance hack this month
The Aflac breach potentially impacted files with customers' Social Security numbers and health details. Insurance company Aflac disclosed this week that cybercriminals breached its U.S. network and may have accessed customers' personal information, the latest in a string of cyberattacks on insurance companies announced this month. Aflac, which provides home and life insurance and manages data for more than 50 million policyholders, said in a June 20 federal regulatory filing it identified suspicious activity on its U.S. network on June 12. The company said it believes it stopped the intrusion within hours of identifying it, calling the attack part of a 'cybercrime campaign against the insurance industry.' The breach potentially impacted files containing customers' personal information, such as Social Security numbers and health-related details. Aflac said it is investigating the breach with the help of third-party cybersecurity experts and has not yet determined how many customers were affected. An Aflac spokesperson told Reuters that the characteristics of the incident were consistent with the hacking group Scattered Spider, which has a reputation for targeting multiple companies in a single industry in waves. More: This is how you stop online trackers from collecting your health data Latest Tech News: Is TikTok getting banned? Trump says he'll 'probably' extend deadline again It's the largest insurance provider yet to disclose a breach this month, after cyberattacks on Erie Insurance and Philadelphia Insurance Companies disrupted their network operations. Aflac said the attack did not affect its systems and it is able to continue providing services as usual while it responds to the security breach. Contributing: Reuters. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dollar and Gold Retreat on Reduced Middle East Tensions
The dollar index (DXY00) Friday fell by -0.21%. The dollar came under pressure Friday on an easing of safe-haven demand after Reuters reported that the Iranian government said it is ready to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment levels. Also, President Trump said he is willing to give diplomacy more time and won't decide to strike Iran for another two weeks. In addition, dovish comments Friday from Fed Governor Waller weighed on the dollar when he said, "I think we have room to bring interest rates down as early as July, and then we can see kind of see what happens with inflation." The dollar remained lower on the weaker-than-expected Philadelphia Fed business outlook report. Dollar and Gold Slide on Hopes of De-Escalation in Israel-Iran Conflict Dollar and Gold Retreat on Reduced Middle East Tensions Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! The US June Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey was unchanged at -4.0, weaker than expectations of an increase to -1.5. US May leading economic indicators index fell -0.1% m/m, right on expectations, and the sixth consecutive month that the LEI has declined. The markets are discounting the chances at 15% for a -25 bp rate cut after the July 29-30 FOMC meeting. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) Friday rose by +0.30%. The euro moved higher on Friday due to weakness in the dollar. However, gains in the euro were limited after the Eurozone's June consumer confidence index unexpectedly fell and after German May producer prices posted their biggest decline in eight months, which were dovish factors for ECB policy. The Eurozone June consumer confidence index unexpectedly fell -0.1 to -15.3, weaker than expectations of an increase to -14.9. German May PPI fell -1.2% y/y, right on expectations and the biggest decline in 8 months. Swaps are discounting the chances at 7% for a -25 bp rate cut by the ECB at the July 24 policy meeting. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) Friday rose by +0.38%. The yen gave up overnight gains and fell to a 3-week low against the dollar Friday as an easing of Middle East tensions curbed safe-haven demand for the yen. Reuters reported that the Iranian government said it is ready to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment levels, and President Trump said he's willing to wait two weeks to see if diplomacy will work before attacking Iran. The yen initially moved higher Friday after Japan's May national CPI excluding fresh food and energy rose more than expected by the most in 16 months, a hawkish factor for BOJ policy. Also, comments from BOJ Governor Ueda were positive for the yen when he said the BOJ will raise the benchmark interest rate if its economic outlook is realized. Japan's May national CPI rose +3.5% y/y, right on expectations. May national CPI ex-fresh food and energy rose +3.3% y/y, stronger than expectations of +3.2% y/y and the largest increase in 16 months. BOJ Governor Ueda said Japan's real interest rate is significantly low, and the BOJ will raise the benchmark interest rate if its economic outlook is realized. August gold (GCQ25) Friday closed down -22.40 (-0.66%), and July silver (SIN25) closed down -0.896 (-2.43%). Precious metals retreated on Friday, with gold sliding to a one-week low and silver falling sharply to a two-week low. An easing of Middle East tensions sparked long liquidation in precious metals after President Trump signaled he wants to give diplomacy a chance and will wait two weeks before deciding if the US would strike Iran. Precious metals also fell on Friday's report from Reuters that said the Iranian government is ready to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment levels, a sign that Iran may want to negotiate its way out of war with the US. In addition, hawkish comments from BOJ Governor Ueda undercut precious metals when he said the BOJ will raise the benchmark interest rate if its economic outlook is realized. Friday's dollar weakness was supportive of metals prices. Also, dovish comments Friday from Fed Governor Waller boosted demand for gold as a store of value when he said, "I think we have room to bring interest rates down as early as July." In addition, Thursday's report from Bloomberg that said senior US officials are preparing for a possible strike on Iran boosted safe-haven demand for precious metals. Industrial metals demand concerns weighed on silver prices on Friday due to the weaker-than-expected US Jun Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey and the weaker-than-expected UK May retail sales report. However, fund buying of silver continues to support prices as silver holdings in ETFs rose to a 2-1/4 year high Thursday. UK May retail sales ex-auto fuel fell -2.8% m/m, weaker than expectations of -0.7% m/m and the biggest decline in nearly 1-1/2 years. On the date of publication, Rich Asplund did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Sign in to access your portfolio
