World rare earths trade network: Patterns, relations and role characteristics

• Published in: Resources policy Vol. 50; pp. 119 - 130
• Main Authors: Ge, Jianping, Wang, Xibo, Guan, Qing, Li, Weiheng, Zhu, He, Yao, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2016; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Closeness; Clustering; Collectivization; Communities; Complex network; Eigenvectors; Geographical distribution; International markets; International trade; Metal industry; Network analysis; Network centrality; Rare earth elements; Trace elements; Trade patterns; Trade policy; Trade relations; Trade role characteristics; Trading; World rare earths trade; Trade role characteristics; World rare earths trade; Complex network; Trade patterns
• ISSN: 0301-4207; 1873-7641
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2016.09.002

Due to the uneven geographical distribution of rare earths (RE), most countries obtain RE on the international market. Trade patterns and trading countries’ role characteristics are two important aspects to understand the current status of world RE trade and furthermore to formulate RE trade policies for each trading country. A complex network theory is adopted to analyze the world RE trade based on the trading data of 2011–2015. The results show that world RE trade favors a tendency towards collectivization since 146 trading countries only form three trade communities. Of these communities, the one headed by the United States, China, Japan, and Germany, has the largest clustering coefficient and has the greatest effect on the world RE trade. Moreover, the average path length valued by 2.294 steps in the network shows that the trading countries are quite close to each other, i.e., building up trade relations between any two countries needs an average path length of only 2.294 steps. Based on the role characteristics analysis of the degree centrality, strength centrality, closeness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and betweenness centrality, our study characterized the competing and complementary relationships between the major trading countries. Finally, the policy implications for different trading countries are proposed. •World RE trade only forms three trade communities in past 5 years.•Red community has the greatest effect on the world RE trade.•Average path length in the world RE trade network is 2.294 steps.•Trading countries can improve importance in the network by complementarity.