Exclusive: US suspends licenses to ship nuclear plant parts to China, sources say

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Exclusive: US suspends licenses to ship nuclear plant parts to China, sources say​


By Karen Freifeld and Fanny Potkin

June 6, 20254:28 PM EDTUpdated 20 hours ago

Illustration shows United States Department of Commerce logo and U.S. flag


United States Department of Commerce logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

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  • Summary
  • Companies

  • Nuclear equipment suppliers include Emerson, Westinghouse
  • Suspensions come amid two-week blitz of restrictions on exports to China
  • Shipments of hydraulic fluid, jet engines among broad swathe of items affected
  • Restrictions imposed during tense U.S.-China trade war

June 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. in recent days suspended licenses for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China's power plants, according to four people familiar with the matter, as the two countries engage in a damaging trade war.

The suspensions were sent to companies by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the people said, and affect export licenses for parts and equipment used with nuclear power plants.

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Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the U.S.-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other's supply chains. It is unclear whether a Thursday call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would affect the suspensions.

The U.S. and China agreed on May 12 to roll back triple digit, tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, but the truce between the two biggest economies quickly went south, with the U.S. claiming China reneged on terms related to rare earth elements, and China accusing the U.S. of "abusing export control measures" by warning that using Huawei Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world violated U.S. export controls. On Friday, Trump said U.S. and Chinese officials would meet again on June 9.

The U.S. Department of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment on the nuclear equipment restrictions. On May 28, a spokesperson said the department was reviewing exports of strategic significance to China.

"In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending," the spokesperson said in a statement.

U.S. nuclear equipment suppliers include Westinghouse and Emerson (EMR.N)

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Westinghouse, whose technology is used in over 400 nuclear reactors around the world, and Emerson, which provides measurement and other tools for the nuclear industry, did not respond to requests for comment.

The suspensions affect business worth hundreds of millions of dollars, two of the sources said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Xi emphasized on his call with Trump that both sides should make good on the agreement reached in Geneva on May 12. China has been "earnestly" executing the agreement, the spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, said in a statement on Friday.

“The U.S. side should acknowledge the progress already made, and remove the negative measures taken against China,” the statement said. China’s rare earth export controls are in line with common practice and not targeted at specific countries, it added.

They also coincide with Chinese restrictions on critical metals threatening supply chains for manufacturers worldwide, especially America's Big Three automakers.

China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers for the U.S. automakers, Reuters reported on Friday.

Reuters could not determine whether the new restrictions were tied to the trade war, or if and how quickly they might be reinstated. Department of Commerce export licenses typically run for four years and include authorized quantities and values.

But many new restrictions on exports to China have been imposed in the last two weeks, according to sources, and include license requirements for a hydraulic fluids supplier for sales to China.

Other license suspensions went to GE Aerospace for jet engines for China's COMAC aircraft, sources said.

The U.S. also now requires licenses to ship ethane to China, as Reuters reported first last week. Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners (EPD.N)

, opens new tab said Wednesday that its emergency requests to complete three proposed cargoes of ethane to China, totaling some 2.2 million barrels, had not been granted.

Enterprise said a May 23 requirement for a license to sell butane to China, in addition to the ethane, was subsequently withdrawn. Dallas-based Energy Transfer said it was notified on Tuesday about the new ethane licensing requirement, and planned to apply and file for an emergency authorization.

Other sectors that have been hit with new restrictions include companies that sell electronic design automation software such as Cadence Design Systems (CDNS.O)

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Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Fanny Potkin in Singapore; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell
 

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China's rare earth export curbs hit the auto industry worldwide​


By Victoria Waldersee and Christoph Steitz

June 4, 202511:58 AM EDTUpdated 3 days ago

A labourer works at a site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province


A labourer works at a site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province March 14, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

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  • Summary
  • Companies

  • EU Commissioner says bloc must cut dependence on China for critical minerals
  • BMW says supplier network affected, but plants running normally
  • Supplier association CLEPA warns of further production outages due to shortages
  • China produces around 90% of the world's rare earths
  • Ford CFO says rare earths issues will continue

BERLIN/FRANKFURT, June 4 (Reuters) - Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and Mercedes-Benz is considering ways to protect against shortages of rare earths, as concerns about the damage from China's restrictions on critical mineral exports deepen across the globe.

China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

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China's dominance of the critical mineral industry, key to the green energy transition, is increasingly viewed as a key point of leverage for Beijing in its trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. China produces around 90% of the world's rare earths, and auto industry representatives have warned of increasing threats to production due to their dependency on it for those parts.

"It just puts stress on a system that's highly organised with parts being ordered many weeks in advance," said Sherry House, Ford's finance chief, at an investor conference on Wednesday.

She said China's export controls add administrative layers that are sometimes smooth, and sometimes not. "We're managing it. It continues to be an issue, and we continue to work the issues."

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday that he and his Chinese counterpart had agreed to clarify the rare earth situation as quickly as possible.

"We must reduce our dependencies on all countries, particularly on a number of countries like China, on which we are more than 100% dependent," said EU Commissioner for Industrial Strategy Stephane Sejourne.

"The export (curbs) increase our will to diversify," he said as Brussels identified 13 new projects outside the bloc aimed at increasing supplies of metals and minerals essential.

Europe's auto supplier association CLEPA said several production lines have shut down after running out of supplies, the latest to warn about the growing threat to manufacturing due to the controls.

Of the hundreds of requests for export licenses made by auto suppliers since early April, only a quarter have been granted so far, CLEPA added, with some requests rejected on what the association described as "highly procedural grounds".

It did not identify the companies but warned of further outages.

While China's announcement in April coincided with a broader package of retaliation against Washington's tariffs, the measures apply globally and are causing worry among business executives around the world.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE)

, opens new tab production chief Joerg Burzer said he was talking to top suppliers about building "buffers" such as stockpiles to protect against potential threats to supply. Mercedes was currently not affected by the shortage.

BMW (BMWG.DE)

, opens new tab said that part of its supplier network was disrupted but its own plants were running as normal.

German and U.S. automakers have complained that the restrictions imposed by China threaten production, following a similar grievance from an Indian EV maker last week.

Mathias Miedreich, board member for electrified propulsion at German automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, said the company has largely been able to get needed permits from China.

In a media briefing on Tuesday, he said he worries though that the situation eventually could resemble the computer-chip shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped out millions of vehicles from automakers' production plans.

Many are lobbying their governments to find a quick solution but some companies only have enough supplies to last a few weeks or months, Wolfgang Weber, CEO of Germany's electrical and digital industry association ZVEI, said in an emailed statement.

Swedish Autoliv (ALV.N)

, opens new tab, , the world's biggest maker of airbags and seatbelts, said its operations are not affected, but CEO Mikael Bratt said he has set up a task force to manage the situation.



RELIANCE ON CHINA​


There are few alternatives to China.

Automakers from General Motors (GM.N)

, opens new tab to BMW and major suppliers like ZF and BorgWarner (BWA.N)

, opens new tab are researching or have developed motors with low- to zero rare earth content in a bid to cut their reliance on China, but few have managed to scale production to bring down costs.

BMW has deployed a magnet-free electric motor for its latest generation of electric cars, but still requires rare earths for smaller motors powering components like windshield wipers or car window rollers.

"There is no solution for the next three years except to come to an agreement with China," said Andreas Kroll, managing director of Noble Elements, rare earths importer for medium-sized companies and startups without their own inventories.

"China controls practically 99.8 percent of global production of heavy rare earths. Other countries can only produce these in minimal quantities, virtually on a laboratory scale."

China's slow pace of easing its critical mineral export controls has become a focus of Trump's criticism of Beijing, which he says has violated the truce reached last month to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

Trump has sought to redefine the United States' trading relationship with its biggest economic rival by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing.

He imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after a selloff in stock, bond and currency markets over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week to try to iron out their differences and the export curbs are expected to be high on the agenda.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said that Xi is "VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH", highlighting the fragility of the deal.
 
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