The United States is expanding government support for the extraction and processing of critical minerals to reduce its dependence on China. Major projects include a $7.4 billion metals processing plant planned by South Korea's Korea Zinc and a $1.4 billion agreement with US rare-earth materials producers Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies.
In 2025, the value of metals mined in the US increased from $33.6 billion to $38.1 billion, largely driven by higher prices rather than increased production.
Lobbying expenditures by 14 mining companies rose from $2.5 million in 2024 to more than $11.5 million over 2025 and the first half of 2026 combined. Despite major investment agreements, actual growth in production remains limited.
Chinese manufacturers of humanoid robots are shifting their focus towards developing AI systems that enable robots to learn new tasks independently.
In the first half of 2026, China's AI robotics sector attracted $13 billion (93.5 billion yuan) in investment across 322 deals, five times the amount recorded a year earlier.
Chinese companies are deploying these technologies in manufacturing. At a CATL factory, Spirit AI robots perform tasks involving flexible wires with a 99% success rate. Ant Group trained its AI model on 160,000 hours of data, including 50,000 hours of human-operated robot activity, and adapted it to 20 robot configurations from 17 manufacturers.
China's advantages include its established manufacturing base and access to large volumes of data. However, restricted access to advanced US chips continues to constrain the sector's development.
China has significantly increased chemical production and exports, intensifying competition with European and US manufacturers.
According to Rhodium Group, between 2020 and 2025, China's production of styrene increased by 97%, ethylene by 80%, polyethylene by 75%, and polypropylene by 71%.
Petrochemical exports grew by an average of 40% annually. China's share of India's polyvinyl chloride (PVC) market increased from 3% to 45%. Between 2022 and 2025, the combined annual production capacity of European chemical plants that announced closures increased sixfold.
The European Union has launched three anti-dumping investigations. The expansion of Chinese exports could lead to new trade restrictions and a redistribution of market shares across the global petrochemical industry.
leave a comment