Exclusive: Rare earth shortages worsen in US aerospace, chips despite trade truce, sources say

[nitpicked]

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/rare-earth-shortages-worsen-us-aerospace-chips-despite-trade-truce-sources-say-2026-02-26/

MONTREAL/BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Suppliers to U.S. aerospace and semiconductor firms face worsening rare earth shortages, with two turning away some clients, industry insiders said, weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a summit in Beijing.

The shortages center on rare earths such as yttrium and scandium, niche members of the family of 17 elements, which play tiny but vital roles in defence technology, aerospace and semiconductors and are almost entirely produced in China.

While Beijing has allowed many rare earth exports to resume since it imposed restrictions in April, shipments of these materials still rarely make it to the U.S. despite the October detente with Washington, Chinese customs data show.
(snip)

A key pain point is yttrium, used in coatings that keep engines and turbines from melting at high temperatures. Without regular application of these coatings, engines cannot be used.
(snip)

[NNadir]

1. Don't worry, be happy. Yttrium is a fission ptoduct.

Neither scandium nor yttrium are in the strictest sense, "rare earths" in the often unfortunate use of this term. (The better term is "lanthanide.) Formally, although their chemistry is very similar and they are generally found in the two main lanthanide ores, they are formally transition elements, given their position in the periodic table.

Scandium is indeed rare. We're it not rare, it would replace aluminum in industry because of its remarkable properties as a metal, which are superior to those of aluminum.

Yttrium is a major fission product and can be isolated from used nuclear fuel. It has no long lived isotopes, other than ⁹⁰Y, with a half life of 64 hours and which is in secular equilibrium with ⁹⁰Sr. Thus cooling for a few weeks after isolation, and purification to remove traces of stable zirconium, it is ready for use.

Just saying...