Supply chain woes have dominated headlines throughout the 2021 calendar year, with the ongoing global microchip shortage heavily impacting auto industry production. Now, there are rumblings that further issues may arise with a magnesium shortage in Europe.
Europe could be running out of the raw material by end of November. Magnesium is primarily used for lightweight applications, e. g. for the production of magnesium(die)cast parts, as an alloying element for aluminum alloys or in metal production.
There are numerous fields of application. For example, magnesium is used in the automotive, the electronics or in the packaging industry. In addition, magnesium is used for desulfurization of metal, for the reduction of metals and in the ductile cast iron industry.
About 85 % of the metal are produced in China. As a result, the supply of magnesium is always considered to be „potentially critical“ in numerous publications, including the „Critical Raw Materials List for EU“.
However with China’s current power crisis Europe might be running out of the non-ferrous metal magnesium, as two Chinese provinces have either halted or reduced production till the end of the year to meet their power-saving targets.
