scholarly journals Rare earth elements in the international economic scenario

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Enrique Arroyo Ortiz ◽  
Elias Marques Viana Júnior

This article will focus on some relevant aspects of rare earths within the context of the mineral economy. It starts with a conceptual presentation of rare earths addressing both governmental actions, and the private sector. Then, briefly describes their chemical characteristics and their main applications. Finally, more emphasis will be given about some economic aspects: the supply chain structure, the mineral reserves, the production profile, the demand, supply and price analyses, both in the international and Brazilian contexts, and the exports and imports, highlighting China's participation in the rare earth market and concluding with the existence of a Chinese monopoly in the production of this product.

An account of experiments has already been given by which the analyses of the rare earth elements were completed with the aid of a particularly favourable arrangement of the anode ray apparatus. This paper contains a description of analyses of other elements made with the same setting and also of some others subsequently made to obtain more accurate and complete data on elements whose constitution had already been provisionally settled. Results (72) Hafnium —Many previous attempts to obtain the mass spectra of this element had failed. For the most similar element, zirconium, the only successful results had been obtained from the fluoride. A pure sample of hafnium fluoride had been kindly provided by Professor G. v. Hevesy, one of the discoverers of the element, and this was incorporated into the anode mixture. The first trial was a failure; but after the work on zirconium described below a second attempt was made, this time with resolved, so that only rough estimates of abundance could be obtained. These were as follows:— Mass numbers . . . . . 176 177 178 179 180 % abundance . . . . . . 5 19 28 18 30 These given a mean mass number 178·5. Applying the same correction as with the rare earths we get atomic weight of hafnium = 178·4 ± 0·2 in fair agreement with the International value 178·6.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikihisa Nakano ◽  
Kazuki Matsuyama

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the roles of a supply chain management (SCM) department. To achieve that, this study empirically examines the relationship between internal supply chain structure and operational performance, using survey data collected from 108 Japanese manufacturers. Design/methodology/approach Based on a literature review of not only organizational theory but also other fields such as marketing, logistics management, operations management and SCM, this study focused on two structural properties, formalization and centralization and divided operational performance to firm-centric efficiency and customer-centric responsiveness. To examine the analytical model using these dimensions, this study conducted a structural equation modeling. Findings The correlation between centralization of operational tasks and centralization of strategic tasks, the impacts of centralization of both tasks on formalization and the effect of formalization on responsiveness performance were demonstrated. In addition, the reasons for formalization not positively influencing efficiency performance were explored through follow-up interviews. Practical implications Manufacturers need to formalize, as much as possible, a wide range of SCM tasks to realize operational excellence. To establish such formalized working methods, it is effective to centralize the authorities of both operational and strategic tasks in a particular department. In addition, inefficiency due to strict logistics service levels is a problem that all players involved in the supply chain of various industries should work together to solve. Originality/value The theoretical contribution of this study is that the authors established an empirical process that redefined the constructs of formalization and centralization, developed these measures and examined the impacts of these structural properties on operational performance.


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