Commerce Self-Initiates §232 Investigation on Critical Minerals Imports, Citing Midstream Concentration

The Bureau of Industry and Security opened a §232 national-security investigation covering imports of cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earths, and fifteen other processed critical minerals. The Presidential memorandum accompanying the initiation cited concentrated Chinese midstream processing capacity, the January 12 expiration of DPA Title III allocation authority, and the failure of private-market offtake...