Mitsubishi To Begin Importing Rare Metal Gallium From Kazakhstan

TOKYO, Jan 26 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. plans to begin importing the rare metal gallium from Kazakhstan later this year to diversify supply sources of critical materials, currently dominated by China, Kyodo News reported.

The company said its subsidiary Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan Ltd. reached a deal in December with the government-affiliated Aluminium of Kazakhstan JSC to procure 15 tonnes of gallium per year on average for several years from 2026.

It will be Mitsubishi's first gallium import business, it said.

The Kazakh metal firm will produce gallium at a production facility being built in the northeastern city of Pavlodar from the third quarter of this year and all the produced metal will be shipped to Japan, Mitsubishi said.

Gallium is used for power semiconductors essential for electric vehicles and for light-emitting diodes utilised for liquid crystal panels, among other products.

It can be extracted as a byproduct during the production of aluminum.

The contract was signed to coincide with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's visit to Japan last month to attend the first-ever summit between Japan and five Central Asian countries also including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which took place in Tokyo on Dec 20.

In 2021, Japan imported 96.5 tonnes of gallium, and 55 tonnes, or 57 per cent, of the imports were from China, according to data from the government-backed Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security.

China, the world's dominant gallium producer, has tightened its export controls on the metal since 2023, posing a challenge for Japan and other countries seeking to secure a stable supply.

A public relations official of Mitsubishi said that there is “no intention at all of aiming for decoupling from China” and that the import project is just part of efforts to “develop new suppliers.”

In a related move, Sojitz Corp., a smaller Japanese trading house, and JOGMEC announced in August a joint development study for gallium production in Australia by partnering with US aluminum maker Alcoa Corp.'s Australian unit.

-- BERNAMA-KYODO