Rare Earths Sector ETF $REMX Booming Again On Trade War With China / Commodities / Rare Earths
Summary
1)Rare earth critical mineral crisis heating up as ChinaRetaliates against Trump Tariffs.
2)Rare Earth Shortage could cripple tech giants such asApple and Tesla.
3)Rare Earth ETF $REMX was over $100 during last rare earthcrisis in 2011 now its under $15.
4)If Chinese cut off rare earths, prices could skyrocket inparabolic rise.
5)China Controls Rare Earth Sector which was invented inUSA.
Over eight years ago I wrote about a crisis that couldunfold in the United States related to rare earth imports from China. Remember the Chinese control the rare earthmarket. These rare earths are used inyour phones, Ipads, and hybrid/electric vehicles. Just think of rare earths in all youradvanced technologies which involve magnets like hard drives and speakers. Some think the rare earth boom has been andgone...but I think its coming back and it could be very soon. 
In this article published back in September of 2011, I warned about a potential rare earth critical minerals crisis which couldcripple the United States economy especially technology companies that use rareearths (REMX) such as Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL) when tensions with Chinaflare up again.
China usurped the rare earth industry away from Americaback in the 1980's when GM sold its magnet technology to the Chinese. No one cared back then as the metals werekind of obscure and the American Public cared more about Michael Jackson. But the Chinese knew that these metals wouldbe the guts of the new mobile technology and defense systems.
I tried to get Obama to make an emergency executive actback during the Credit Crisis to boost jobs and develop a secure USA rare earthsupply chain. All I heard was crickets.
Back then they ignored the fact that these metals arebehind our top defense systems, guided missile programs and technologies thepublic is still unaware as its being kept top secret. For years I warned that America was becominga client state of China as the elites sold our most advanced industries forpennies. As I said back then, "Weare now on the verge of reaping the whirlwind resulting from our shortsightedness on rare earths."
The new administration under Trump has listened to a largesegment of the population who know their businesses have been shutdown by theChinese shrewd game of catering to the corporate elites. Those who have allowed our uranium and rareearth secrets to be sold over the past 30 years should be tried for possiblytreason. Such a tragedy as we are now insuch a weak position with the Chinese.
Our technology depends on rare earths and Trump shouldconsider what I requested Obama to do almost 10 years ago to make an emergencyexecutive order to fast track American rare earth and battery metaldevelopment.
China is shrewdly gaming us into positions of weakness anddependency. To ignore the global chess game being developed by China is closeto an act of treason or at least malfeasance by our electedrepresentatives. It is survival time ona national level.
Recently Lynas (LYSCF) one of the only publicly trade rareearth producers may be signaling to themarket that America may be the place for rare earths as they areplanning to build the first rare earth separation plant with an AmericanChemical company. I wrote years ago thatLynas should do that rather than build an expensive facility in Malaysia whichhas shown to be an unfriendly jurisdiction from an operating perspective. They have had a lot oflocal opposition in Malaysia. Glad they are finally listening to investors likeme that said to invest in USA.
It is noteworthy that there was a huge presence of shortsellers in rare earth and uranium stocks. Almost eight years ago we were almost ready to start rare earthproduction in the USA before the Chinese cut the prices dramatically. All development stopped and Molycorp wentbankrupt as well as many of the junior developers. China with a single click destroyed thesector which was trying to get started and all the investors who had theforesight. 
Remember China has a bullet on how to respond to Trump'stariffs right now. All they have to dois restrict rare earth exports crippling the US Economy as they did 10 yearsago.
Unfortunately, It may take 10-15 years now to restartindustry. A lot of the Americanexpertise from the 1950's were around 10 years ago but now are way pastretirement.
There is speculation that the Chinese are prepared to shutdown rare earth exports in response to Trump. Share of the rare earth etf (REMX) were up yesterday on record volume as Bloomberg reported the President of China visited a rareearth facility to send clear message to Trump.
Investors should be prepared for Chinese retaliation withrare earths which could send prices soaring like it did in the past. The Chinese have warned the US that they havetools at their disposal to retaliate against Trump. That weapon of choice may be rare earths.
Remember the Rare earth ETF (REMX) hit a high above $100back during the last crisis in 2011...now its trading under $15. No one remembers what happened 10 years agobut we do. The market has totallyignored rare earths until this week when we saw this record volume as sourcesare saying the Chinese may retaliate with rare earths. If they do get ready for the next bubble inrare earths which may even surpass the 2010 run.
Disclosure: I am/we are long REMX.
By Jeb Handwerger
© 2018 Copyright Jeb Handwerger - All Rights Reserved
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