KEITH BRADSHER2025年6月5日4月，一辆运送矿物的卡车从中国龙南市郊的一个重稀土矿场离开。 Keith Bradsher/The New York TimesBEIJING — China has suspended almost all exports since April 4 of seven kinds of rare earth metals, as well as very powerful magnets made from three of them. The halt has caused increasingly severe shortages that threaten to close many factories in the United States and Europe.北京——自4月4日起，中国暂停了七种稀土金属以及由其中三种金属制成的强力磁体的几乎所有出口。停止出口造成了日益严重的短缺，美国和欧洲的许多工厂有可能因此关闭。Why are these metals so needed; why has China stopped exporting them; and, crucially, what happens next?为什么我们如此需要这些金属？为什么中国停止了出口；至关重要的是，接下来会发生什么？What are rare earths?什么是稀土？There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which are found near the bottom of the periodic table. Most of them are not actually very rare; they are all over the world, though seldom in large enough ore deposits to be mined efficiently.有17种金属被称为稀土，它们位于元素周期表的底部，其中大多数实际上并不罕见，它们遍布世界各地，但很少有足够大的矿藏可供有效开采。They are called rare because it is very difficult to separate them from one another. Breaking the chemical bonds that bind them in nature can require more than 100 stages of processing and large quantities of powerful acids.之所以被称为稀有，是因为很难将它们分离出来。要打破自然界中束缚它们的化学键，可能需要100多个处理阶段和大量的强酸。一克铽元素。Why does China control so much of the rare earth supply?为什么中国控制如此多的稀土供应？China mines 70% of the world’s rare earths. Myanmar, Australia and the United States mine most of the rest. But China does the chemical processing for 90% of the world’s rare earths because it refines all of its own ore and practically all of Myanmar’s and nearly half of U.S. production.中国开采了全球70%的稀土。其余大部分由缅甸、澳大利亚和美国开采。但世界上90%的稀土都是由中国进行化学加工的，因为中国提炼自己的所有稀土、几乎所有的缅甸稀土和近一半的美国稀土。China’s dominance is greatest for seven rare earths that it has mostly stopped exporting since early April: dysprosium, gadolinium, lutetium, samarium, scandium, terbium and yttrium. These are mined almost exclusively in China and Myanmar and are among the hardest to separate chemically. For metals like dysprosium and terbium, so-called heavy rare earths that are used for heat-resistant magnets, China’s refineries produce up to 99.9% of the world’s supply.中国在镝、钆、镥、钐、钪、铽和钇等七种稀土上的主导地位最为显著。自4月初以来，中国已基本停止了这些稀土的出口。这些几乎只在中国和缅甸开采的稀土属于最难用化学方法分离的金属。对于镝和铽等被称为重稀土的金属，中国的精炼厂的产量占全球供应量的99.9%。重稀土用于制造耐热磁体。China has some of the world’s best deposits of heavy rare earths. These are found in a band of ore that is particularly rich in a valley near Longnan in south-central China, extending west into northernmost Myanmar.中国拥有一些世界上最好的重稀土矿藏。这些矿藏位于中国中南部陇南附近的一个山谷中，向西延伸至缅甸最北部，矿藏特别丰富。中国南部江西省龙南县一个山谷中的重稀土金属矿。What’s so important about the seven rare earths that China controls?中国控制的七种稀土有什么重要的意义？The main consumer of these seven metals is the car industry, which uses a lot of heat-resistant rare earth magnets. But these elements are also needed by manufacturers of semiconductors, medical imaging chemicals, robots, offshore wind turbines and a wide range of military hardware.这七种金属的主要消费者是汽车工业，该行业使用大量耐热稀土磁体。但半导体、医疗成像化学品、机器人、海上风力涡轮机和各种军事硬件的制造商也需要这些元素。Rare earth magnets are up to 15 times as powerful as iron magnets of the same weight. They are essential for the dozens of small electric motors found in today’s cars. The motors for brakes, steering and many other systems all rely on rare earth magnets. A single luxury car seat may include 12 rare earth magnets for the motors that adjust it. Electric cars have additional rare earth magnets for the motors that turn their wheels.稀土磁体的强度是同等重量的铁磁体的15倍。稀土磁体对于当今汽车上的几十个小型电动机必不可少。刹车、转向和许多其他系统的马达都依赖稀土磁体。一个豪华汽车座椅可能包括12个稀土磁体，用于调节它的马达。电动汽车中用于驱动车轮的电机也需要用稀土磁体。China makes about 90% of the world’s supply of rare earth magnets.中国生产的稀土磁体约占全球供应量的90%。If the supplier of parts for one of these systems runs out of magnets, an entire car assembly plant may have to shut down, and thousands of people may be temporarily laid off. Last week, Ford temporarily closed its Ford Explorer SUV factory in Chicago for a week for lack of magnets.如果其中一个系统的零部件供应商没有磁体，整个汽车装配厂可能不得不关闭，成千上万的人可能会暂时失业。上周，福特在芝加哥的福特探索者SUV工厂因缺少磁体而暂时关闭了一周。Most rare earth magnets are made from two light rare earth elements, neodymium and praseodymium, that China continues to export and that are also available in much smaller quantities from Australia and the United States.大多数稀土磁体是由两种轻稀土元素——钕和镨——制成的，这两种稀土中国仍在出口，澳大利亚和美国也有少量供应。4月，上海车展上的电动汽车。But those rare earth magnets can lose much of their magnetism if they are exposed to heat or a strong electrical field. To prevent this, small amounts of the heavy rare earths dysprosium or terbium can be added during production.但是，这些磁体一旦暴露在高温或强电场中，就会失去大部分磁性。为了防止这种情况，可以在生产过程中添加少量重稀土镝或铽。Gasoline engines and many electric motors produce considerable heat, so the car industry mostly buys rare earth magnets with dysprosium or terbium included. Right now, China is selling almost none of these heat-resistant magnets.汽油发动机和许多电动机会产生相当大的热量，因此汽车工业大多购买含有镝或铽的稀土磁体。目前，中国几乎不出售这种耐热磁体。The world’s magnet industry produces nearly 200,000 tons a year of rare earth magnets with dysprosium or terbium. Another 80,000 tons a year are made without these metals for less demanding applications, like purse clasps.世界磁体工业每年生产近20万吨含镝或铽的稀土磁体。每年还生产8万吨不含这些金属的材料，用于要求不高的用途，比如钱包扣。Has China halted rare earth exports before?中国以前停止过稀土出口吗？Yes, China halted exports of all rare earths to Japan for two months in 2010 during a territorial dispute, scaring Japanese manufacturers, which nearly ran out of supplies. Sumitomo, a Japanese trading group, and the Japanese government subsequently helped Lynas, an Australian company, build more mining capacity in Australia and processing capacity in Malaysia so that Japan would have an alternative to China.有过，2010年中日领土争端期间，中国曾停止向日本出口所有稀土长达两个月，给几乎断货的日本制造商造成恐慌。日本贸易集团住友商事和日本政府随后帮助澳大利亚公司莱纳斯在澳大利亚建立了更多的开采能力，并在马来西亚建立了加工能力，这样日本就有了除中国之外的另一个选择。Why did China suspend exports this time?中国这次为什么暂停出口？The Chinese government has said repeatedly that it suspended exports of the seven rare earths, and magnets made from them, because they are “dual-use items” with military and civilian applications.中国政府一再表示，暂停出口这七种稀土以及由它们制成的磁体是因为它们是军民两用品。The most heat-resistant magnets, for applications that may be exposed to temperatures in the hundreds of degrees Celsius, use samarium, not dysprosium or terbium. Samarium, which China stopped exporting this spring, is needed for the guidance systems for intercontinental ballistic missiles. An F-35 fighter jet has about 25 pounds of rare earth magnets, mostly samarium-cobalt magnets.对于可能暴露在数百摄氏度温度下的应用，最耐热的磁体使用钐，而不是镝或铽。中国今年春天停止出口的钐是洲际弹道导弹制导系统所必需的。一架F-35战斗机大约使用11公斤的稀土磁体，其中大部分是钐钴磁体。Yttrium is used in lasers, including artillery range finders. Scandium can be combined with aluminum to make lightweight aircraft parts.钇用于激光器，包括火炮测距仪。钪可与铝结合制成轻量的飞机部件。去年，位于澳大利亚卡尔古利的莱纳斯加工厂。The other four rare earths subject to China’s new export license requirement are mostly used for civilian purposes. Military applications represent only about 5% of the rare earth magnet market.受中国出口许可证新要求限制的其他四种稀土主要用于民用目的。军事应用仅占稀土磁体市场的5%左右。The United States has contended that China’s real motivation in imposing export controls has nothing to do with military applications but was part of China’s retaliation for the Trump administration’s decision days earlier to impose much higher tariffs on imports from China and dozens of other countries.美国辩称，中国实施出口管制的真正动机与军事用途无关，而是中国对特朗普政府几天前决定对从中国和其他几十个国家进口的产品征收更高关税的报复的一部分。What happens next?接下来会发生什么？China and the United States agreed on May 12 in Geneva to reduce their tariffs on each other. China also agreed to suspend the application of nontariff measures imposed on the United States since early April.5月12日，中国和美国在日内瓦同意降低彼此的关税。中国还同意暂停自4月初以来对美国实施的非关税措施。But China has contended that the rare earth export controls apply to all countries, not just the United States. The implication, although not clearly stated by Chinese officials, is that the export halt may not qualify as a nontariff measure imposed on the United States.但中国坚称稀土出口管制适用于所有国家，而不仅仅是美国。虽然中国官员没有明确表示，但这意味着停止出口可能不属于对美国实施的非关税措施。4月，一架美国空军F-35战斗机在荷兰吕伐登举行的北约演习中。U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reached the deal with China in Geneva. But another agency, the Commerce Department, tightened its controls the next day on Huawei’s computer chips, barring Americans from buying or financing any of them. That has angered Chinese officials.贸易代表格里尔和财政部长贝森特在日内瓦与中国达成了协议。但另一个部门——商务部——在第二天收紧了对华为电脑芯片的控制，禁止美国人购买或为其提供融资。这激怒了中国官员。China’s Ministry of Commerce has also struggled to come up with a process for issuing export licenses for rare earths, which could explain some delays. A few European companies have obtained supplies, like Volkswagen, but others have not. Shipments to Europe have been interrupted, and some factories there may have to close temporarily, even though China is trying to improve relations with Europe.中国商务部也一直在努力制定稀土出口许可证的发放程序，这可能是一些延误的原因。大众汽车等一些欧洲公司已经获得了供应，但其他公司尚未获得。尽管中国正在努力改善与欧洲的关系，但对欧洲的货运已经中断，那里的一些工厂可能不得不暂时关闭。Detroit automakers were approved a week ago for a few shipments but are also running short on supplies.底特律汽车制造商一周前获准装运几批货物，但目前也出现供应短缺。China currently requires a separate license and elaborate paperwork for each shipment. Western businesses are urging China to approve three-month or yearlong licenses for each overseas customer to speed up the process.中国目前要求每批货物都要有单独的许可证和详细的文件。西方企业正在敦促中国为每个海外客户批准三个月或一年的许可证，以加快流程。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。