Can´t find english sauce. Translated/German
Collapse of aluminum production: now it's getting serious
News from the "Things that don't need to interest us in Germany because we have more important things to worry about" department: The raw materials and supply crisis is assuming ever more threatening proportions worldwide. World trade - which has been thrown out of kilter primarily by the global corona psychosis - is increasingly stuttering, the self-healing powers of the system have been severely disrupted and the full extent of Germany's dependence on imports, the long-time world export champion, is being relentlessly recalled. Now the aluminum industry, another "system-relevant" key supplier to the entire manufacturing sector, is threatened with a Europe-wide production stop - and that before Christmas.
The reason is a lack of deliveries of the most important alloying metal magnesium from the People's Republic of China, which has a de facto monopoly with a world market share of 87 percent. As reported by the "Welt am Sonntag" newspaper, the German Metals Association (WV Metalle) has drawn the attention of the German government to the consequences of the supply bottleneck. The industry association expects, it says, "that the current magnesium stocks in Germany or throughout Europe will be exhausted by the end of November 2021." A supply shortage of this magnitude would thus threaten massive production losses throughout the aluminum value chain - "with sectors such as the automotive, aircraft, electric bicycle, construction or packaging industries as well as mechanical engineering." The letter explicitly states that there is "almost complete dependence" on China for magnesium.
With their lamentations, the metalworkers are just at the right address with the German government: This chancellor has left no stone unturned to increase Germany's unilateral dependence on semi-democratic and undemocratic regimes and to extend it to basic supplies in the elementary sector; the best example: the gas connection to Russia, which Merkel has rushed through against all warnings from Germany and abroad, especially from U.S. allies, has made Germany more susceptible to blackmail than ever before - with the result that this winter will see the highest heating costs ever and Putin can turn on the gas tap at will. Merkel's pathological multilateralism has not made life safer, more stable and more predictable for Germans; on the contrary. This is true for gas, and increasingly so for electricity - and for raw materials, on whose availability the economy and prosperity directly depend.
Germany under Merkel more dependent on foreign countries than ever
And so dependence on China, known for a long time, has never been fundamentally reduced; on the contrary. Now standstill threatens Germany, which still pays 630 million euros per year in "development aid" to China - which buys up the whole world and subjugates it economically. During her visits there, Merkel, self-sacrificing and hard on the edge of favoritism and abuse of office, turned her attention to the fraud store WireCard - but securing supplies of raw materials seems to be less important to her, even if hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on them. Because now a Europe-wide aluminum production stop is threatening.
Incidentally, this is the result of an extreme energy shortage in China. As a result, the central government in Yulin and other important provinces and districts in the magnesium industry had severely restricted production - and in some cases cut off the power supply to energy-intensive plants. According to the German Raw Materials Agency (DERA) at the German Federal Office for Geosciences and Raw Materials, magnesium prices have increased fivefold compared to the previous year to more than 10,000 US dollars per ton, according to "dts".
https://ansage.org/kollaps-der-aluminiumproduktion-jetzt-wird-es-ernst/
here some older stuff on that topic (english sauce)
The EC has further exacerbated the supply situation for aluminum in the European Union with a recent anti-dumping decision. In the United States, nickel briquette premiums are up almost 35%. Chinese stainless steel rises to 7-year high amid this year’s (non-existent) off-season. And EU steelmakers are furious over lost cash giveaways.
EU: Aluminum shortage further exacerbated by EC
The EC on July 13, 2021 further raised the hurdles to solving the rampant aluminum shortage in the European Union by publishing its General Disclosure Document on case AD668 Anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of aluminum flat-rolled products originating in the People’s Republic of China.
Chinese aluminum anti-dumping duties of up to 24.6%
https://steelnews.biz/aluminum-shortage-in-the-eu-continues-to-worsen