China plans large stockpiles
China unveiled a five‑year plan to stockpile critical resources and strengthen energy security, explicitly prioritizing minerals and strategic material resilience to avoid future trade shocks. That policy move could tighten global availability and lift prices for electronics inputs that rely on those materials. (chinatechnews.com)
Beijing approved the 15th Five‑Year Plan covering 2026–2030 at the National People’s Congress on March 13, 2026, and the document frames strategic material security as a top planning priority for that period. (english.www.gov.cn) State commentary and subsequent reporting on March 22 explicitly elevate domestic stockpiling and “strategic material security” into national‑security language rather than a narrow economic policy. (scmp.com) Public and industry coverage identifies targeted inputs as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare‑earth elements, and Beijing moved last year to add cobalt and copper into state metal reserves. (bloomberg.com) Analysts and trade trackers estimate China has channelled roughly $120 billion into overseas mining and processing investments since 2023, concentrating upstream control over those same battery and magnet metals. (oilprice.com) International agencies note China retains outsized refining and processing capacity—about 90% of rare‑earth processing in some estimates—which amplifies its ability to tighten export availability and influence input prices. (deseret.com) The stockpiling push coincides with reciprocal moves abroad, including the U.S. Project Vault proposal (about $12 billion announced in February 2026), framing a near‑term global competition to lock down strategic mineral inventories. (hollandhart.com)
