KEITH BRADSHER2025年9月22日 Nearly six months ago, China sent an unmistakable message about its grip on critical supply chains. Its leaders suspended exports of powerful rare earth magnets that many industries around the world can’t live without.约六个月前，中国用一种明白无误的方式宣示了其对关键供应链的掌控。中国领导人暂停了全球许多行业赖以生存的强力稀土磁铁的出口。The move gave renewed urgency to efforts begun in recent years to develop alternatives. In the United States, four factories to make rare earth magnets are finishing construction or starting to produce magnets. An especially large factory has just opened in Eastern Europe.这一举动让近年来启动的那些寻找替代方案的努力变得更加紧迫。在美国，四家生产稀土磁铁的工厂正接近竣工或已开始投产。东欧刚刚有一座规模尤其庞大的工厂投产。But the scramble since April has served only to underline the lead that China has after three decades of heavy investment, and how hard it will be for the rest of the world to catch up quickly.但自4月开始的这些手忙脚乱的应对只能彰显中国在经过三十年的巨额投资后所取得的领先地位，以及世界其他国家要迅速迎头赶上有多么困难。China has used its chokehold on rare earth magnet supplies to gain leverage in trade negotiations with President Trump and with the European Union. Since the initial cutoff, Beijing has allowed some rare earth exports but now keeps tighter reins on them. As a result, Mr. Trump has been more cautious about raising tariffs on China than on countries like India and Brazil, which were not original targets for his tariffs.中国利用其对稀土磁铁供应的钳制在与特朗普总统和欧盟的贸易谈判中获得筹码。自最初切断出口以来，北京允许了部分稀土出口，但现在进行了更严格的管控。由此产生的结果是，相比对印度和巴西等国——这些国家最初并非特朗普加征关税的目标，特朗普在提高对华关税的问题上采取了更谨慎的态度。China has also restricted rare earth magnet exports to Europe to pressure the European Union to reconsider tariffs on Chinese electric cars.中国还限制了对欧洲的稀土磁铁出口，以迫使欧盟重新考虑对中国电动车征收的关税。一家加拿大公司在爱沙尼亚锡拉迈埃的一座海滨综合设施从矿石中提炼稀有金属，该设施旁边是一座以旧建筑木材为燃料的发电厂。“Many companies are still encountering significant challenges, with some even threatened by or already experiencing production stoppages” for lack of rare earth magnets, said Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China. Automakers and defense contractors have been the hardest hit in Europe and the United States.“很多企业仍面临重大挑战，一些企业甚至存在停产的可能，或已经停产，”中国欧盟商会主席彦辞(Jens Eskelund)表示。在欧洲和美国，汽车制造商和国防承包商受到的打击最为严重。Concern over China’s dominance in rare earths began to bubble up several years ago in agencies of the U.S. government and European Union. Several of the projects now approaching completion were helped along by government financial incentives.美国政府和欧盟的机构几年前就开始对中国在稀土领域的主导地位表示担忧。目前即将完工的几个项目都得到了政府财政激励措施的推动。On Friday, the Canadian company Neo Performance Materials opened a factory in Narva, Estonia, that in one fell swoop has nearly doubled the available capacity of Europe and the United States to make magnets. Neo has also installed much of the equipment needed to more than double its factory’s output over the next several years.上周五，加拿大公司Neo Performance Materials在爱沙尼亚纳尔瓦开设了一家工厂，一举使欧洲和美国的磁铁生产能力几乎翻了一番。Neo还安装了大量设备，以在未来几年将该工厂的产量提高一倍以上。Still, the gap with China is large.然而，与中国的差距依然很大。用稀土金属与铁和硼混合制成的磁体合金片。 Marta Giaccone for The New York Times合金经过加工制成磁块。 Marta Giaccone for The New York Times这些块状物被切割成磁体，然后送入清洗机进行清洗。 Marta Giaccone for The New York TimesNorth America and Europe together buy nearly 40,000 tons of rare earth magnets annually for cars, robots, drones and other products, almost all of it purchased from China, according to Adamas Intelligence, a firm in Toronto that tracks the industry.追踪该行业的多伦多公司Adamas Intelligence的数据显示，北美和欧洲每年为汽车、机器人、无人机和其他产品采购近4万吨稀土磁铁，几乎全部购自中国。Countries outside Asia have been manufacturing fewer than 2,000 tons of rare earth magnets a year, mainly in Germany and Finland. Japanese companies have been making an additional 25,000 tons annually in Japan and Vietnam, primarily for automakers and other customers in Japan and South Korea.亚洲以外国家每年生产的稀土磁铁不足2000吨，主要在德国和芬兰。另外日本公司在日本和越南每年还能生产2.5万吨，主要供应日本和韩国的汽车制造商及其他客户。China, by contrast, produces more than 200,000 tons of rare earth magnets a year. Many of the magnets go into motors and other devices made in Chinese factories as part of China’s vast exports of manufactured goods相比之下，中国每年生产超过20万吨稀土磁铁。其中许多被装配到中国工厂制造的电机和其他设备中，作为中国庞大制造品出口的一部分流向全球。锡拉迈埃精炼厂的一名经理，该厂从事稀土分离工作。使用精炼稀土制造污染控制化学品的设备。A global game of catch-up全球的追赶Companies working to increase production outside China are making progress, but it’s slow.在中国之外努力扩大产能的公司正在取得进展，但步伐缓慢。VAC Group of Germany, which has been Europe’s main rare earth magnet manufacturer, plans to commission a factory in Sumter, S.C., next month with a capacity of nearly 2,000 tons a year, said Erik Eschen, the company’s chief executive.德国的VAC集团是欧洲主要的稀土磁铁制造商，其首席执行官埃里克·艾申表示，公司计划下个月在美国南卡罗来纳州萨姆特启用一座年产能近2000吨的工厂。Using American workers who did up to 18 months of training at VAC’s factories in Germany, the company expects to run the South Carolina facility at full capacity by the end of March, he said. It could nearly double capacity in 18 months, he added.他表示，该公司将使用在德国VAC工厂接受了18个月培训的美国员工，预计在3月底前实现南卡罗来纳州工厂的满负荷运转。他补充称，该工厂的产能或可在18个月内接近翻倍。MP Materials, which owns the Mountain Pass rare earths mine on the California-Nevada border, is finishing a 1,000-ton factory in Texas. It will initially supply General Motors. MP Materials intends an expansion and a second factory to bring total annual production to 10,000 tons within a few years. The company got a boost this summer when the Defense Department agreed to invest $400 million.MP材料公司拥有加利福尼亚州与内华达州边境的帕斯山稀土矿，目前该公司正在得克萨斯州建设一座产能1000吨的工厂，投产后初期将为通用汽车供应产品。MP材料公司计划通过扩建及新建第二座工厂，在未来几年内将年总产量提升至1万吨。今年夏天，美国国防部同意向该公司投资4亿美元，为其发展提供了助力。A third company, USA Rare Earth, has built a factory in Stillwater, Okla. The factory is expected to be producing at an annual pace of 600 tons at the end of next year and twice that by early 2027, said David Bushi, the company’s senior vice president of manufacturing. A fourth company, Noveon Magnetics, has built a factory near Austin, Texas.第三家企业美国稀土公司已在俄克拉荷马州斯蒂尔沃特市建成一座工厂。该公司制造业务高级副总裁戴维·布希表示，到明年年底，这座工厂的年产能预计将达到600吨，到2027年初产能将再翻倍。第四家企业诺维昂磁铁公司则在得克萨斯州奥斯汀市附近建了一座工厂。But these are optimistic forecasts, industry executives said. Building a rare earth magnet factory is easier than running one, and it can take as long as three years to ramp up fully. Quality standards are exacting and require the work of experienced technicians.但行业高管表示，这些均为乐观预期。运营稀土磁铁工厂的难度远高于建造工厂，工厂要实现全面投产可能需要长达三年时间。稀土磁铁的质量标准极为严苛，需要经验丰富的技术人员操作。A factory needs to be able to make dozens of different kinds of rare earth magnets. One gasoline-powered car can use more than 40 rare earth magnets, often weighing a third of an ounce or less, for the motors in the seats, brakes, side mirrors and other systems. Electric cars need additional magnets.一座工厂需具备生产数十种不同类型稀土磁铁的能力。一辆燃油汽车的座椅、刹车、后视镜及其他系统的电机中，可能会使用40多块稀土磁铁，每块磁铁的重量往往不足10克。电动汽车则需要更多。工人佩戴袖套式的手套，将粉末状磁性材料压制成块状。 Marta Giaccone for The New York Times检测样品的纯度。 Marta Giaccone for The New York Times锡拉迈埃精炼厂用于分离镝和铽的塑料罐——这两种高价值稀土元素被添加到磁铁中以提高耐热性。One reason China is so far ahead in magnets is its near total control over the processing of ore to extract rare earth minerals. Chinese refineries produce over 99 percent of the world’s supply of three kinds of rare earths crucial to making magnets that can resist heat. Many mines in other countries, including the United States, have long shipped their ore to China to be refined.中国在磁铁领域遥遥领先的原因之一在于，它几乎完全掌控着稀土矿石的精炼流程。全球99%以上用于制造耐热磁铁的三种关键稀土元素由中国精炼厂生产。包括美国在内的许多国家长期将其矿山生产的矿石运往中国精炼。China’s reach in rare earths extends into other countries. Shenghe Resources, which is partly owned by the Chinese government, has invested in or signed contracts with many of the new rare earth mines and refineries.中国在稀土领域的影响力还延伸到了其他国家。由中国政府部分持股的盛和资源已投资或签约多家新建稀土矿山及冶炼厂。Most of the world’s rare earth processing equipment is made by China, which has begun restricting equipment exports. China employs nearly all the world’s technicians working in the refineries, and the government has recently barred most of them from leaving the country.全球绝大多数稀土精炼设备由中国制造，而中国已开始限制这类设备的出口。全球从事稀土精炼工作的技术人员几乎都在中国就业，中国政府近期还禁止了其中大部分技术人员出境。“It’s not easy to find technical people outside of China,” said Ramón Barúa Costa, the chief executive of Aclara Resources, which is building a rare earths mine in Brazil.“在中国之外，很难找到相关技术人才，”在巴西建设稀土矿的阿克拉拉资源公司首席执行官拉蒙·巴鲁阿·科斯塔表示。纳尔瓦位于纳尔瓦河左岸，与俄罗斯的伊万戈罗德隔河相望，两城由一座桥梁相连。In Estonia, a town with fifth-generation technicians在爱沙尼亚，一座拥有五代技术传承的小城For companies and countries trying to wean themselves off China’s rare earth magnets, a lot is riding on Neo’s operations in easternmost Estonia. Sillamae, where Neo refines rare earths, became a center of shale oil production in the 1920s and rare metals production in the 1980s. Narva, where Neo has built its magnet factory, is on a river bend that juts into Russia.对于试图摆脱对中国稀土磁铁依赖的企业和国家而言，Neo公司在爱沙尼亚最东部的业务进展至关重要。Neo公司的稀土精炼厂所在地锡拉迈埃在20世纪20年代成为页岩油生产中心，80年代又成为稀有金属生产中心；Neo公司新建磁铁工厂所在的纳尔瓦位于一条伸入俄罗斯境内的河湾地带。So close to Russia, Narva seems a peculiar location for a European initiative toward achieving greater self-reliance for critical minerals. In 2022, four months after his invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia noted the strategic importance of Narva to Russia. Many in Estonia, formerly part of the Soviet Union and now a member of the European Union, were alarmed at his remarks.纳尔瓦紧邻俄罗斯，对于欧洲推动关键矿产自主供应的计划而言，这里似乎并非理想选址。2022年，在入侵乌克兰四个月后，俄罗斯总统普京曾强调纳尔瓦对俄罗斯的战略重要性。这番言论令许多爱沙尼亚人感到不安——这个前苏联加盟共和国如今已是欧盟成员国。In a written reply to questions, Prime Minister Kristen Michal of Estonia said: “Our defense investments, combined with the firm commitments of our allies to the security of our region, are strong guarantees for continued economic prosperity in this part of the world.”爱沙尼亚总理克里斯滕·米哈尔在书面回复提问时表示：“我们的国防投入，加之盟友对本地区安全的坚定承诺，是保障该地区持续经济繁荣的有力支撑。”Neo itself has a deep lineage in rare earths. It owns Magnequench, a former General Motors subsidiary that invented applications for rare earth magnets in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years Neo has shifted part of its rare earths production from China to Sillamae.Neo公司本身在稀土领域拥有深厚积淀。该公司旗下的麦格昆磁公司曾是通用汽车的子公司，在20世纪80至90年代开创了稀土磁铁应用技术。近年来，Neo公司已将部分稀土生产业务从中国转移至锡拉迈埃。Neo’s new magnet factory in Narva has an initial capacity of 2,000 tons, and parts of the factory have already been built for 5,000 tons.Neo公司在纳尔瓦新建的磁铁工厂初始产能为2000吨，工厂内部分设施已按5000吨产能标准建设。But even ramping up production to 2,000 tons may take three years because of the complexities of running a magnet factory, said Rahim Suleman, Neo’s chief executive, who questioned whether other companies could move faster.但Neo公司首席执行官拉希姆·苏莱曼表示，由于磁铁工厂运营的复杂性，即便将产能提升至2000吨也可能需要三年时间。他觉得没有哪家公司能做到更快。“If you have not done it before,” he said, “you just don’t know.”“如果你以前没做过，就根本不知道其中的门道。”他说。Keith Bradsher是《纽约时报》北京分社社长，此前曾任上海分社社长、香港分社社长、底特律分社社长，以及华盛顿记者。他在新冠疫情期间常驻中国进行报道。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。