China’s Export Controls Are Rewriting the Rules
June 18, 2026
The latest G7 plans for critical raw materials dominated industry headlines this week. Meanwhile, Rohstoff.net attended the E-Waste World Conference & Expo in Frankfurt am Main to explore the latest challenges, innovations, and trends shaping the recycling and circular economy sectors.
FRANCE: G7 PLANS CRITICAL MINERALS PUSH:
The group of nations aims to significantly reduce its dependence on individual suppliers for rare earths and permanent magnets.
The G7 countries plan to expand their cooperation on critical minerals and reduce their dependence on imports. The leaders of the group of major industrialized economies agreed on the measures at their meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France.
Specifically, the G7 wants to reduce its dependence on individual suppliers of rare earths and the permanent magnets made from them. By 2030, no single supplier outside the G7 and its partner countries is to account for 60 percent or more of demand. Over the longer term, the goal is 50 percent. Similar targets are also to be set for other critical minerals.
Although China is not mentioned by name in the joint declaration,the measures are likely aimed primarily at the country that dominates the global markets for rare earths and many other minerals. China’s export controls have repeatedly restricted supply security for Western countries and exposed the vulnerability of their supply chains.
Coordinating Stockpiles, Setting Recycling Targets:
The G7 also aims to expand national stockpiling of critical minerals and improve coordination among member states. Another focus is recycling and the circular economy. By the end of the year, the countries plan to develop targets for selected critical minerals or their derivatives.
Greater transparency in supply chains is also part of the G7 plans. Harmonization and traceability will initially be tested for lithium and nickel. After that, the mechanism is set to be expanded each year to include five additional critical minerals, with a focus on rare earths.
On financing, the G7 is relying on stronger coordination among development banks, export credit agencies, and private capital. Additional instruments are also being examined, including joint procurement, quotas, and price floors. The latter had been a recurring topic of discussion among G7 countries in recent months, after the United States guaranteed minimum prices to its most important rare-earth producer as part of a deal. However, some countries expressed reservations about this approach, Reuters reported, citing diplomatic sources.
IEA, OECD, and JOGMEC Involved:
To implement the measures and facilitate exchange among all participating countries, a new platform will be established. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will support the platform, including by providing early warnings about supply chain risks. For strategic stockpiling, the G7 also plans to draw on the expertise of JOGMEC, the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security. Japan is often cited as a pioneer in resilient supply chains.
The 60 percent target for rare earths in particular will be challenging, Reuters cited analysts as saying. One market expert described the G7 declaration as an important signal, but said the pace of implementation will ultimately depend on political support, including investment in midstream and downstream parts of the value chain.
The targets are reminiscent of the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). Under the CRMA, the EU aims to ensure that by 2030, it is no more than 65 percent dependent on a single third country for any strategic raw material.
When the CRMA entered into force, its targets were also described as ambitious, while the path toward implementation was criticized as insufficiently concrete. Industry representatives primarily cited a lack of adequate financial support. This assessment was reinforced a few months ago by a report from the European Court of Auditors, which found that achieving the targets is at risk.
GERMANY: RECYCLING GOES STRATEGIC:
At this year’s trade fair in Frankfurt am Main, the spotlight was on the circular economy’s growing role as a strategic source of raw materials, alongside key challenges and innovative solutions.
Recycling and the circular economy are no longer discussed solely from the perspectives of sustainability and waste management. Increasingly, they are recognized as strategic sources of raw materials that can strengthen supply security, making them central to industrial and geopolitical policy. This shift was clearly reflected at the E-Waste World Conference & Expo in Frankfurt am Main. Now one of the world’s leading events for the recycling and circular economy industries, the exhibition and conference has expanded significantly year after year.
The 2026 edition took place on 17–18 June in Hall 3 of Messe Frankfurt. According to organizer Trans-Global Events, the event brought together more than 400 exhibitors, 180 speakers and panelists, and over 4,500 visitors from industry, government, and academia. Across four parallel conference tracks, participants explored the major topics shaping the circular economy: E-Waste & WEEE, Battery Recycling, Metal & Critical Raw Material Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics.
A common message ran through many presentations and discussions: the strategic importance of recycling is now widely recognized—the challenge is turning ambition into implementation. Awareness and investment in recycling technologies have grown significantly in recent years, Pascal Leroy, Director General of the WEEE Forum, noted in his opening remarks at the E-Waste conference stream. However, his subsequent conversation with John Shegerian, CEO of the U.S. recycling company ERI, underscored a persistent problem: far too many valuable resources are still being lost.
FutuRaM: Unlocking the Raw Material Potential of Europe’s Waste Streams:
One of the most compelling examples came from Kees Baldé, Senior Scientific Specialist at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). As scientific coordinator of the EU-funded FutuRaM research project, Baldé helped deliver one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of critical raw materials contained in Europe’s waste streams, including electronic waste and mining residues.
According to the study, improved recovery systems could enable Europe to reclaim between 4.1 and 5.7 million tonnes of valuable materials annually by 2050. Under an ambitious circular economy scenario, these secondary resources could replace up to 56% of the region’s primary raw material imports.
Despite this potential, significant gaps remain. A substantial share of end-of-life products never enters formal collection and recycling systems. Instead, they are landfilled, incinerated, or leave Europe through difficult-to-track material flows. Additional losses result from insufficient sorting and dismantling processes. Rare earth elements in permanent magnets, for example, are often recycled together with ferrous material streams rather than recovered separately.
To better exploit Europe’s “urban mine,” Baldé argued that more comprehensive data and harmonized standards for tracking waste and secondary raw material flows are essential. At the same time, recycling capacity must be expanded, and circularity must be integrated into product design from the very beginning.
The conference track on Metals & Critical Raw Material Recycling also highlighted untapped opportunities. Dr. Britta Bookhagen, Head of Secondary Raw Materials at the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA), together with independent precious metals and recycling expert Christian Hagelüken, focused on one particularly striking example: mobile phones.
An estimated 167 million unused mobile phones and smartphones are currently stored in German households alone. Yet reliable information on what happens to devices after their useful life remains limited. As Bookhagen explained, robust data exist only for products placed on the market, while many discarded phones are exported, remain unused in households, or are improperly disposed of.
The speakers also pointed to an emerging challenge for future recycling technologies. The material composition of mobile phones has changed considerably over time. Older devices generally contain higher concentrations of precious metals, giving them greater intrinsic metal value. Modern smartphones, by contrast, contain larger amounts of niche and critical raw materials such as gallium and rare earth elements, which are considerably more difficult to recover with current technologies.
This creates a strategic dilemma for next-generation recycling processes: they must increasingly target critical raw materials while maintaining the economic viability provided by established precious metal recovery.
Germanium: Significant Potential Still Remains Untapped:
Previously overlooked material streams were also the focus of Dr. Christian Hell, Senior Manager for Germanium & Minor Metals at raw materials trader TRADIUM. According to Hell, major obstacles continue to hinder the establishment of an effective circular economy for germanium.
Primary production is heavily concentrated in China, after which the material is often processed further in Europe before being incorporated into high-tech applications, such as infrared optics, in the United States. At the end of their service life, however, these components rarely return to European recycling loops.
To make germanium recycling commercially viable within Europe, Hell argued that both political and market-based incentives are needed. These include improved access to end-of-life products and binding offtake commitments within the European Union.
Numerous panel discussions also explored the policy instruments needed to overcome these barriers and stimulate demand for secondary raw materials, including debates surrounding the EU’s proposed End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation. While opinions differed on the appropriate balance of regulatory measures, such as mandatory recycled-content quotas, one conclusion recurred: unlocking the full potential of critical raw materials from secondary sources will require much closer collaboration across the entire value chain.
Critical Raw Materials to Receive Even Greater Attention from 2027:
The E-Waste World Conference & Expo increasingly provides exactly this platform for collaboration. Not only were conference sessions well attended, but the exhibition floor also facilitated lively exchanges between established technology providers, start-ups, raw materials companies, industrial users, policymakers, and research institutions.
The event has firmly established itself as one of the recycling industry’s leading international meeting points. In 2027, the conference structure will be expanded once again, with Critical Raw Materials becoming a dedicated conference track, separate from the existing Metals program.
JAPAN AND CANADA ENTER STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP:
The Japanese conglomerate and the Canadian rare earth processor aim to collaborate on raw material sourcing and the future distribution of separated rare earth products.
Another step toward diversifying global rare earth supply chains: Canadian refining and technology company Ucore Rare Metals and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas have announced a strategic collaboration. The latter is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, a diversified conglomerate with significant activities in commodities and metals trading.
The partnership is designed to support two key objectives. First, it will help secure feedstock for Ucore’s planned rare earth refinery in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Second, Sumitomo will assist the Canadian company in identifying customers and developing market channels for its future rare-earth products, separated into different streams. The collaboration will focus on selected medium and heavy-rare-earth elements, which are critical inputs for high-performance permanent magnets used in advanced technologies.
According to Ucore, Japan represents the primary target market for these products. However, customers in North America and other allied partner countries are also expected to benefit from the arrangement.
Japan is currently the world’s largest producer of rare earth magnets outside China, although its share of the global market remains in the single-digit percentage range. At the same time, access to the rare-earth raw materials required for magnet production has become increasingly constrained in recent months, largely due to export restrictions imposed by China amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
As a result, Japan has intensified efforts to reduce its dependence on Chinese supply chains for both raw materials and downstream processing. Just days ago, plans to build a new rare earth refinery in Japan were announced, underscoring the country’s commitment to strengthening domestic and allied supply networks.
