As Ford Authority reported last month, China recently opted to suspend exports of various minerals and rare earth magnets to other countries as that country’s government works to draft a new regulatory system. Trouble is, those materials are needed for electric vehicles and various other components, such as steering systems, headlights, spark plugs, and capacitors, which are used in a wide berth of electronic items, and China controls around 99 percent of the world’s supply of them. Now, that country’s decision is impacting production of the Ford Explorer.
According to the New York Times, production of the Ford Explorer at the Chicago Assembly plant was temporarily paused last week after one of The Blue Oval’s suppliers rain out of magnets, which are used in that model to operate braking and steering systems, power seats, fuel injectors, and various other components. The plant has since reopened, according to a Ford spokesperson, who added that the automaker had already decided not to keep it running for a week in the coming months regardless of this shortage. The company simply chose to shift that downtime due to the disruption in rare earth magnet supply.
In the meantime, China’s new regulatory system could permanently ban those types of supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors, and comes in direct response to U.S. tariffs. Depending on how this pans out, automakers could face problems assembling cars and vehicles that utilize electric motors requiring those magnets in that process, as well as others.
Some U.S. companies have been told that it will take 45 days to issue export licenses before these rare earth metals and magnets would resume shipping to other countries. Much like the COVID-19 pandemic exposed companies like Ford that didn’t stockpile semiconductor chips prior to the start of worldwide supply chain issues, this new export issue could certainly make them regret not doing so, or at least, sourcing materials from other places. Many American companies opt not to stockpile rare earth materials simply because they’re quite expensive, however.
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