On 28/9/19 9:01 am, wrote:
On Friday, September 27, 2019 at 3:15:37 PM UTC-4, Jon Elson wrote:
On Fri, 27 Sep 2019 05:16:40 -0700, mogulah wrote:

"One of those chemicals, known as photoresist, is critical for
top-of-the-line products produced by Samsung Electronics, the giant
South Korean maker of chips and gadgets, among others. Japan controls
around 90 percent of the world's supply."

Japan and South Korea Feud, but Breaking Up Is Hard New York Times -
August 28, 2019 --
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/b...rea-trade.html

Wow, they know how to hit them where it hurts! Photoresist! Yikes!

You gotta wonder how Japan got such a corner on that stuff. A lot like China has a lock on the rare-earths, I guess.

China doesn't have a lock on rare earths. The ores are available in many
countries, including Australia. What China does more than anyone else
does is *process* the ore, because the processes are incredibly
polluting and they don't care about ****ing in their own pool. If they
ever tried to really restrict trade in rare earths you'd find plenty of
countries ramping up their processing programs.

Clifford Heath