Over past months, China’s export bans on gallium, germanium, and antimony have upended supply chains for weapons makers. China is taking a hard line on materials that have “dual use” applications, across military and civilian sectors. Titanium poses a unique problem for supply chain managers in North America and Europe. Besides defense and aviation, titanium also has huge dual-use applications for robotics. Industrial automation is critical to increase manufacturing in Western markets, to bring down the cost of production. And access to low-cost titanium makes robotics manufacturing possible. But China and its close allies have huge advantages in the mining of titanium, and in the production of titanium sponge. Alternative sources of sponge, such as Japan, are entirely dependent on imports of titanium ore. And alternative sources for titanium ores tend, also, to run through Chinese Belt-and-Road Investments. Closing scene, Foshan, Guangdong
