EU industry chief says raw materials recycling is solution to China dependency

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU industry chief Stephane Sejourne said on Wednesday that recycling is likely the solution to reducing the bloc's dependency on critical raw materials imports from China.

Under the Critical Raw Materials Act that entered into force last year, the bloc has set a target for recycling to meet 25% of EU demand for critical minerals by 2030. Less than 1% of rare earths in the EU are currently recycled.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Sejourne said the EU also needs to speed up its deal-making for critical raw materials instead of waiting for multi-year trade deals to be signed.

Sejourne said the bloc's gallium and rare earth permanent magnet production was set to rise sixfold by 2030 but the pace needed to accelerate across all the 17 strategic metals and minerals identified by the EU.

On the regulatory side, Sejourne said gaining permits needs to be simplified after "too many projects were abandoned" in the past.

The Commissioner said part of the responsibility rests on companies' shoulders as a U.S.-China deal to delay new restrictions on rare earth exports was unlikely to last.

"Companies also need to reevaluate their risk and stop buying 100% Chinese," Sejourne said.

"The United States and China have signed a stop-the-clock deal and Europe has benefited but I doubt it will last the 12 months".

Sejourne is due to present the EU's new economic security doctrine and resource package on Dec. 3.

(Reporting by Julia Payne and Alessandro Parodi;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Elaine Hardcastle)