Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Rare Earth Restrictions To Raise Hard Drive Cost

Posted by timothy on from the economics-have-consequences dept.

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."

9 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. The obvious first question... by suso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:The obvious first question... by Nimey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      5-10% isn't that much. Spinning discs will still be a lot cheaper than even the cheapest SSDs.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    2. Re:The obvious first question... by sonicmerlin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There will be no jump to SSDs. The price of entry into the market is too high ($25 billion for a new fabrication plant), and supply is constantly being outstripped by growing demand. Cost of production is also not falling fast enough. The industry expects to transition to a new and more efficient technology by 2014 or 2015, whatever that may be.

    3. Re:The obvious first question... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Interesting

      it's bullshit fake shortages

      What's worse is that a $5 jump in the price of a hard drive will mean computers will go up by about $200, and manufacturers (the few that are left) will say that they have to raise prices because "of the rise in component cost".

      By my calculations, by the year 2015 there will be two corporations in every sector. Two oil companies, two beverage companies, two computer manufacturers, two banks. And two by two they will board the ark and leave the rest of the fucking human race in servitude. Just think of the savings in input costs! Profits will soar. And there will 1000 owners and the rest of us will be renters.

      Anybody want to bet that's a more accurate prediction than anything we'll hear in next year's election season?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:The obvious first question... by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The problem with SSDs are the failure rates on those are frankly insane, so bad that Atwood at Coding Horror thinks they should be judged on a hot/crazy scale as in how much are you willing to lose and how much money/downtime are you willing to put up with for the speed. He still recommends them but then again this is a guy that recommends spending over $400 on a pair of headphones with another couple of hundred on an amp to drive them.

      This of course doesn't even figure in the facts that SSDs are frankly tiny little suckers and that one of any decent size would frankly be several orders of magnitude higher than the price increase on HDDs. Hell in my own case my basic WinXP/7 dual boot is taking up probably close to 200Gb simply because with 3Tb I never have to give a crap. I don't even want to know what an SSD big enough to hold that would cost, not to mention the 500Gb+ in movies, music, games, and audio projects I have on board.

      No, frankly the answer is quite simple and something we should have been doing for a long time and would have been if it weren't for traitors in congress giving tax breaks to those that offshore so they have NO penalty for exporting vital industry. what we should do is fire the mines back up in NM and treat it as what it is, vital to our national interest. it should be nationalized (I believe We, The People already own the land) and Americans should be put to work mining that ore. Too many electronics require those metals to have our industry cut off at the knees by the Chinese, and Lord knows there are plenty of Americans that can use the work.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Re:Too important by kurt555gs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Right now Hybrid vehicles either use brushless DC or permeant magnet excited AC motors. Both need rare earth magnets and neither are as powerful or efficient for their application as switched reluctance motors which do not use magnets at all. If the electric auto industry was innovative, they would all be using switched reluctance motors and China could eat their rare earth magnets.

    My guess is a swamp of patents by Toyota that keep them in the dark ages so they can protect their IP.

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
  3. Most HDDs are Made in China by Quantum_Infinity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Aren't most HDDs made in China? So how does cutting export of rare earth metals make a difference?

  4. Tempest in a Teapot... by Genda · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:no need for guaranteed purchase by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't there a desolate, almost uninhabited desert in Peru just off the Pacific Ocean?

    Aren't they pretty desperate?

    Comes down to energy to run desalination to supply the water and political stability. Nice earthquake area so good fun for all, lets build a nuke or four to run the thing. Prove a modern nuke can run through a 8. Nobody but employees/contractors for a hundred miles. Show those Chinese how we do it the American way.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'