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Rare Earth Restrictions To Raise Hard Drive Cost
MojoKid writes "Multiple manufacturers in the IT industry have been keeping a wary eye on China's decision to cut back on rare earth exports and the impact it may have on component prices. There have been reports that suggest we'll see that decision hit the hard drive industry this year, with HDD prices trending upwards an estimated 5-10 percent depending on capacity. Although rare earth magnets are only a small part of a hard drive's total cost, China cut exports last year by 40 percent, which drove pricing for these particular components up an estimated 20-30x. China currently controls 97 percent of the rare earth elements market for popular metals like neodymium, cerium, yttrium and ytterbium."
that this article doesn't touch on at all is does this affect Solid State Drives (SSDs)? Probably not because they don't use magnets. So this will just speed up the jump to SSDs. You could be the cynic and think that somehow China decided to raise rare earth prices to drive SSDs, but I kinda doubt that Hard drives in general make up a significant part of that decision.
That's okay. With the economy where it is, we can replace the magnets with interns.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
http://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/Pacific-Ocean-Seabed-Rich-in-Rare-Earth-Minerals.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/gigantic-rare-earth-deposit-found-in-the-pacific-2011-7
+ many other google links, massive quantities were found in the ocean, so there are plenty of other places to get them from.
The rest of the world (read: US) does not have rare earth mineral (which aren't rare at all, actually) mines because China has a long history of simply lowering prices until all competing mines have gone out of business. China considers that having a monopolistic source for rare earths gives them substantial manufacturing advantages for thousands of products, including florescent lights, medical supplies, and disk drives.
IMHO all of these products, including motors for hybrid vehicles, are too important to allow China to trivial blackmail the rest of the world at their pleasure. All that is needed is the US government to guarantee purchase at some set price and dozens of new mines would open overnight in the US.
Two background articles on rare earth shortage:
http://www.tikalon.com/blog/blog.php?article=2011/mass_quantities
http://www.tikalon.com/blog/blog.php?article=RE_shortage
The rest of the world (read: US) does not have rare earth mineral (which aren't rare at all, actually) mines because China has a long history of simply lowering prices until all competing mines have gone out of business. China considers that having a monopolistic source for rare earths gives them substantial manufacturing advantages for thousands of products, including florescent lights, medical supplies, and disk drives.
IMHO all of these products, including motors for hybrid vehicles, are too important to allow China to trivial blackmail the rest of the world at their pleasure. All that is needed is the US government to guarantee purchase at some set price and dozens of new mines would open overnight in the US.
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Rotating media is heading the way of the CRT. This will just accelerate the switch to SSD and whatever's next.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
I question the ability of civilization to survive if we have to pay $100+ per TB...
How the fuck do they work?
HDD industry was consolidated. The competition was reduced. There are now basically two producers - WD and Seagate.
As price rise, it will become profitable enough to reopen the mines in the US again.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Didn't we just talk about this the other day?
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/08/04/1857220/Rare-Earth-Deposit-Discovered-In-US
Now all we have to do is mine some of it.
Oh no! My next 3 TB drive is going to cost $105 instead of $100. The sky is falling!
Pffft. This isn't news worthy.
You too, shall be honored to experience Alex Chiu's [burning sarcasm]miraculous discovery.[/burning sarcasm]
(sorry, but you asked. yes, I am kidding.)
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
"Race for rare earths" broadcast on the 18/08/2011 :) :)
Come to Australia http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3296991.htm
The US, Europe, Japan are interested and it will only cost A$700 to $800 million (A$~=US$).
Get your vision goggles, spy radar, missile guidance and tank navigation systems supplies from friends
We love US investors and your open ended defence funding goes a long way in Oz
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
There is another angle to this. Perhaps China will restrict the export of components, such as rare earth magnets, to be used in the manufacture/assembly of HDs in other countries but they will probably not restrict the export of Chinese manufactured/assembled HDs. This may merely be a tactic to force Seagate and WD to move more production to China.
China does not want to manufacture low priced commodities. They want to manufacture high tech finished goods. They will use all forms of pressure to reach this goal.
The world is headed towards SSDs anyway. In fact this is only going to spur incentives for more rapid development of larger drives.
Aren't most HDDs made in China? So how does cutting export of rare earth metals make a difference?
With all the old hard drives that wear out or become obsolete, I wonder if there is any effort being put into recycling the rare earth magnets they contain, or if old drives are just dumped by the ton into landfills.
Shit they can have all these lousy Buckyballs that my coworkers keep fucking around with.
Wasn't there news that the US (re)discovered some significant deposit somewhere?
Where is Elon "how we can beat China in cost" Musk when you really need his creative accounting skills.
The Chinese will mess with the price of Rare Earths (which are not really all that rare) and the US will almost certainly begin using its own from a major find in California. All the while Austrailia, Japan, Africa and South America look at seriously developing their resources. The real lock China has on Rare Earths is its processing (pretty much the only game in town right now.) Here's a chance for the U.S. to get back into industrial jobs (god forbid) and produce a lasting job base for a new global economic boom in the rare earth arena. The Chinese advantage is short term, and if they squeeze too hard, the world will simply take their business away. Nobody likes a chiseler.
By the way rare earths are used all over the place and for a dizzying array of things. There are about 400 lbs of them in a late model Prius. They are used in virtually all green tech (high performance generators in modern wind mills are pretty much sluggs of rare earths.) Colorful plasma and LED displays use them (that cool display on your smart phone is probably chock full of rare earths.) Florescent lighting that is any color but off green uses rare earth mixed in with the coating. Rare earths are used in glass making, advanced textiles, plastics with special properties (OLEDs), and anything that uses an enhanced magnetic field from an earbud to an mag-lev train. Even the "Euro" contains a trace of Europium as an elemental pun. Modern society runs on rare earths.
This is total bullshit. The reason they are increasing HD costs is because of SSD's. They are trying to leverage the cost ratio and exploit that ratio. If that is too complex someone explain it because I'm busy.
how do they work?
This will also affect the Live Music Manufacturers since all the really sexy new light speakers are driven with Neodymium magnets and they use a lot more of the stuff per unit (lbs vs grams) than HDs
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f87/neodymium-%93light-weight%94-speaker-cabinet-review-167954/
Neodymium magnets plus Class D amplifiers are creating a sea change in live amplification -I have a Markbass combo amp that does 300watts into a 12-inch speaker and weighs less than 40 lbs -of course it cost a bit: ~$1k
http://www.markbass.it/products.php
1500 watts, 18" subwoofer -only 43 kg
http://www.master-audio.com/producto.asp?id=195
genz-benz is another maker of really light powerful gear as well
http://www.genzbenz.com/?fa=whatsnew
I'm just sayin'
Our rare earth mines are just getting started. But the deposits are huge. It may be a couple years before it relaxes the market, but by no means do they control the rare earth market. They want you to think that to inflate demand. There are lots of other sources all over Canada being surveyed (and all over the united states for that matter http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/08/04/1857220/Rare-Earth-Deposit-Discovered-In-US)
It's too easy to say that China is simply undercutting prices. In fact, both Europe and the USA could simply refuse to import rare earth minerals that are not mined according to appropriate environmental standards. But they don't - because they fear that their cronies will blame them for a their latest 1% fall in revenue, should they do and the radical environmentalists will stage another outbreak of moral panic anyway.
The result of environmental standards in the USA and Europe is for the most part simply that those things are done cheaper and dirtier elsewhere (China, India, Africa, whatever). In short, it's NIMBY whatever color the veil.
Seriously. Anyone have statistics on the number of hard drives produced over the years?
China cut back on export of these materials in order to stockpile them for possible future military needs.
Herpes, the gift that keeps on giving...
So this is why the price of buckyballs/neocube/generic magnet balls has increased so much. I don't know whether the hard drive or magnet ball price bothers me more...
I have one metric shitload of neodymium from hard drive magnets. Where can I turn this fun to play with and fun to say metal into money?
The game.
It's totally possible to build electric motors that use electromagnets for both the rotor and the stator... Could someone explain why permanent magnets are so much better?
wow that's the first outright troll post i've seen from kdawson. I guess he figured not enough of his jizm was on the site.
That's great news, it makes our local rare earth industry more viable.
"Each Prius, which is powered by a combination internal combustion engine and electric motor, uses about one kg (2.2 lb) of neodymium in the motor and 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum in the battery."
I come here for the love
SSD's dramatically increase the speed of a computer during regular usage. The fastest spinner is a fraction of the speed of a low-end modern SSD. My mediocre Kingston puts all spinners to shame.
Moron.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110616006280/en/Molycorp-Announces-Completion-Capital-Raise-781-Million
The materials used for magnets in new drives are nearly identical to those used ten years ago. At the rate HDDs are decomissioned and discarded I would say recycling old HDDs for their magnets should be a decent business.
Regarding the chinese restriction, I think the objective is to push SSDs deeper into the market, since they are still big producers of memory chips. Even a short term advantage on them would make a significant difference in the market.
Examine the name closely, I got a laugh out of it too.
rare Earth metals are extracting from Earth when mining for other metals is performed. China is simply taking the extra step to refine the extraced material for those rare Earth metals. If prices get high enough, other countries can easily start refining their process to get the same rare Earth metals. They have 97% of the rare Eath metal market, but tha does notmean that other contries can not fill the void if they want to.
to combat russia economically he won and you al lost
IIRC the US has a lot of rare earths, they are simply not exploited because of environmental concerns.
Also, I wonder how much rare earths are in old electronics and landfills.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Could not agree more. Ultimately, China's heedlessness is helping manufacture future catastrophe for every living thing on the planet. As is all negligence of environmental concerns.
you had me at #!
LOL, good catch
I posted on this earlier from my phone, but it looks like it never showed up. We DO have old mines here in the US and at least one of them has re-opened. If you live in Southern California or Las Vegas, you can go see it. It's in the Mojave Desert just off of I-15, near the exit to Nipton, California. Look to the north as you're crossing that little mountain. China has been (probably illegally) dumping Rare Earth metals on us at below their cost for some time. The purpose was to drive our domestic producers out of business. But the ore is still there in the ground, the mining claims are still valid, and in some cases it isn't that difficult to re-open the mines. Yes, the prices of hard drives will go up. A little. Because the prices of Rare Earths has been artificially low. But there's no Armageddon looming here, just a correction that will probably be relatively small.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
No big deal, just get your drives at Harbor Freight.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"