Japan is months away from running out of yttrium, a Japanese official told the Financial Times. China shipped Japan 4 tonnes of yttrium oxide in September, down from 51 tonnes a year earlier. Every AI data center needs power and every gas plant needs a turbine. The first rows of blades sit right behind the burner, in gas hotter than the melting point of their metal. Part of what protects them is a ceramic coat of zirconia a few tenths of a millimeter thick. Pure zirconia changes crystal shape as it cools, swells about 5%, and cracks off the blade. Adding 6 to 8% yttrium oxide stops that. Jet engines use the same coat, and the US has told Beijing it will not export the engines for China’s C919 airliner because the yttrium shortage has constrained production. Chip toolmakers coat the inside of etch chambers with yttrium oxide too, because it resists the fluorine plasma that erodes other materials. China exported about 1,600 tonnes of yttrium last year. At China’s price of $9 a kilo, that is about $14M. Argus prices it at $1,150 a kilo outside China. Coating makers are now revisiting zirconia mixed with magnesium and calcium, recipes from the 1970s and 80s. They make a less tough coat. I build chemical plants. Outside China, almost no one separates yttrium at commercial scale. A new plant takes 18 to 36 months or longer to build. ft.com/content/ebd3244a-9120…