US agencies have developed critical minerals price floor system

The US has developed a critical minerals price floor system that it’s pitching to allies as the Trump administration and more than 50 countries look to reduce dependence on China for the resources that are deemed critical to national security.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said multiple US agencies have developed the system and are having conversations with allies and partners. It’s the latest update to progress being made by the US and its allies to ringfence Western companies from China’s pressure on those markets.

“We have had multiple agencies take a close look at this. They’ve developed a very, very sophisticated price floor system that we are having conversations with our allies and partners about,” Helberg said in an interview at the Defense Tech Leadership Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, with Bloomberg Television. “We’re very excited about it because pricing is the key to unlocking private investment.”

His comments come less than two weeks since the US hosted 55 nations at a critical minerals summit during which the Trump administration pitched price floors and a major role for private equity as part of a broad plan to reduce supply chain dependence on China. At the same time, there’s been very little detail made available to investors and other market participants around how the parties will formulate a pricing mechanism, how it would be implemented and when they may roll out the system.

Price floors have long been discussed among critical minerals industry players as a way to shield non-Chinese companies from the Asian nation flooding markets and depressing Western firms’ profits.

Helberg, who’s made many public remarks in the last few weeks around the Trump administration’s aggressive critical minerals policy, said ultimately the price floors will be rolled out through Pax Silica, a US-led alliance to strengthen supply chains.

(By Joe Deaux and Annmarie Hordern)