by Julia Groß, €uro on Sunday
Hought, would, would – in the wake of the imminent halt to gas supplies from Russia, politicians, experts and the media never tire of pointing out the failures of the past. It will probably no longer be clarified why there was no majority that advocated a broader base of natural gas suppliers instead of becoming dependent on Russia.
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After all, various institutions are taking this as an opportunity to put other trade relationships to the test. Economists have sounded the alarm several times over the past few days: Germany and Europe are entering a new dependency trap for numerous raw materials that are indispensable for future technologies.
“There is an urgent need for action for crisis-proof supply chains for nine critical minerals. More sources of supply are needed here to make the supply chains more resilient,” says Lisandra Flach, head of the ifo Center for Foreign Trade. In addition to lithium, the so-called rare earths are particularly affected. These metals are important for electric motors, wind turbines, photovoltaics, robotics, batteries and fuel cells – ultimately for all technologies that are indispensable for the energy transition. According to the Ifo study, China is one of the largest suppliers on the world market for seven of the nine particularly critical raw materials, in some cases in a market-dominant position.
Heinz-Werner Rapp, founder and head of the Cognitive Finance Institute at the independent investment company Feri, takes the same line: “Therefore, in Europe – in addition to the current gas crisis – there is also a risk of an explosive raw material trap for strategic metals. Here is the new dilemma: the more Europe attempts to break away from Russian natural gas through alternative energies, the greater the dependency on strategic metals.”
In addition to China, many producers of the coveted raw materials come from Australia and the USA. Anyone who wants to position themselves broadly as an investor – after all, all suppliers should benefit from the accelerated restructuring of the European energy systems – can use the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF (ISIN: IE 000 2PG 6CA 6) bet on a basket of 23 resource companies that are leaders in mining lithium and rare earths. Stocks are weighted according to their market capitalisation, with 38% Australian stocks, 35% Chinese stocks and 14% US stocks. ETF fees are 0.59 percent per year.
On the other hand, those who do not shy away from the risk of volatile individual commodity stocks can look to the rare earth specialist Lynas from Australia (WKN: 871 899) put in the depot.
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Image sources: FoxPictures / Shutterstock.com
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