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China Controls 90% of the World’s Manganese Market, Another Strategic Ingredient for Electric Vehicle Batteries

by Eric Olander

Governments and automakers in the U.S., Europe and Asia have become steadily concerned in recent years over China’s dominance of the strategic minerals and metals supply chains that are used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.

Their primary concern is a repeat of what happened in 2015 when China temporarily shut off the supply of rare earths to Japan, sparking major disruptions in Japan’s manufacturing sector. Today, that same concern applies to other vital resources, namely cobalt, where China dominates both the extraction and refining sectors.

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