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Strategic importance

Due to its use in advanced electronics and optics, Germanium is considered a technology-critical element (by e.g. the European Union), essential to fulfill the green and digital transition. As China controls 60% of global Germanium production it holds a dominant position over the world's supply chains.

On 3 July 2023 China suddenly imposed restrictions on the exports of germanium (and gallium), ratcheting up trade tensions with Western allies. Invoking "national security interests," the Chinese Ministry of Commerce informed that companies that intend to sell products containing germanium would need an export licence. The products/compounds targeted are: germanium dioxide, germanium epitaxial growth substrate, germanium ingot, germanium metal, germanium tetrachloride and zinc germanium phosphide. It sees such products as "dual-use" items that may have military purposes and therefore warrant an extra layer of oversight.

The new dispute opened a new chapter in the increasingly fierce technology race that has pitted the United States, and to a lesser extent Europe, against China. The US wants its allies to heavily curb, or downright prohibit, advanced electronic components bound to the Chinese market in order to prevent Beijing from securing global technology supremacy. China denied any tit-for-tat intention behind the Germanium export restrictions.

Following China's export restrictions, Russian state-owned company Rostec announced an increase in germanium production to meet domestic demand.