A Study On The Influencing Factors And Implementation Path Of Rare Earth Industry Chain Extension In China

As a key material to support the development of strategic emerging industries and the construction of national defense science and technology industry,rare earths play an irreplaceable role in safeguarding national security and realizing the"double carbon"strategy.With the unique advantage of rare earth resources,China has gradually established the world’s largest and fastest growing upstream and midstream of the rare earth industry chain,but has not yet effectively extended to the downstream of the industry chain with the highest technological content and economic added value.Some important rare earth components,key rare earth parts and even rare earth high-end manufactured products basically rely on imports,resulting in a long-term"captured"disadvantage of China’s rare earth industry chain in the global rare earth value chain division of labor.Therefore,it is urgent to drive China’s rare earth industry chain to the high-end of the global value chain to achieve extension.However,the extension of China’s rare earth industry chain is facing the development adversity of"long-term promoted but difficult to extend".The central and local governments have been attaching great importance to the high-value utilization of rare earth resources,and are committed to seizing the high point of China’s rare earth industry chain in the global value chain,and have started to make certain layout of the rare earth industry chain extension strategy earlier.Although the midstream of the rare earth industry chain is developing rapidly,and the downstream of the industry chain has been difficult to achieve breakthrough development.Based on this situation,this paper focuses on the core research issue of"exploring the path of China’s rare earth industry chain extension"with the starting point of"breaking the obstacle factors of China’s rare earth industry chain extension",and explores the technological innovation of rare earth new materials and extension direction,rare earth mineral price fluctuation,the impact of investment efficiency and risk differences in each link of the rare earth industry chain on the extension of the rare earth industry chain.It also analyzes the path of realizing rare earth industry chain extension driven by innovation policy and enterprise capability based on the group state perspective.In addition to the introduction,literature review and theoretical basis as well as the development status of industrial chain and the evolution of regulatory policies introduced in the basic chapter,the main contents of the full text are as follows:Firstly,statistical analysis and knowledge mapping method are used to deeply analyze the technology evolution and development trend of global rare earth new materials from multiple perspectives,such as patent application time trends,new material categories,country(regional)distribution,and hot technology areas.Meanwhile,statistical analysis,Logistic model,technology impact evaluation method combining TAI and TRI and entropy TOPSIS method are used to analyze and evaluate the technology evolution,life cycle characteristics and technology development quality of rare earth permanent magnet motors globally and in major countries.The study shows that the production of rare earth permanent magnet motors using rare earth permanent magnet materials is a rare earth new material application industry with a great impact on the national economy and a great potential for future development.China has become the country with the largest number of rare earth permanent magnet motor patent families,the largest absolute technical influence TAI,and the highest quality of technical research and development in the world,and is in the rapid growth stage of its life cycle.Taking rare earth permanent magnet motor as the key direction of rare earth industry chain extension not only has economic feasibility but also has technical feasibility.Secondly,the influence of rare earth mineral product price fluctuation on rare earth industry chain extension is analyzed at the theoretical level,a theoretical framework for the influence of rare earth mineral product price fluctuation on rare earth industry chain extension is proposed,and a VEC model for the influence of rare earth mineral product price fluctuation on rare earth industry chain extension is constructed.Using quarterly data of rare earth mineral product prices,Johansen co-integration test,Granger causality test,VEC model estimation,impulse response and other methods to empirically examine the impact of rare earth mineral product price fluctuation on rare earth industry chain extension.Meanwhile,on the basis of analyzing the influence mechanism of rare earth mineral product price fluctuation,the OLS method is used to empirically examine the influence of demand,supply,policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk on the rare earth mineral product price fluctuation.The study shows that:the price fluctuation of rare earth mineral products has a significant negative impact on the extension of rare earth industry chain and is characterized by persistence;in addition to the generally concerned demand and supply,policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk are also important factors affecting the price volatility of rare earth mineral products.Thirdly,the theoretical framework of investment efficiency and risk differences of each link of the industry chain affecting the extension of rare earth industry chain is constructed,and the three-stage DEA model combining DEA-BC~2 and SFA and DFA methods are used to measure the investment efficiency and risk of each link of the industry chain respectively,then the impact of investment efficiency and risk differences of each link of the industry chain on the extension of rare earth industry chain is analyzed.The study shows that the average investment efficiency of each link of the industry chain in order of low to high is midstream,downstream and upstream,and the average investment risk in order of low to high is upstream,midstream and downstream.The midstream and downstream of the industry chain show lower investment efficiency and higher investment risk,which are bound to be difficult to attract capital investment from investment bodies,which fully indicates that the difference in investment efficiency and risk of each link of the rare earth industry chain is an obstacle factor restricting the extension of the rare earth industry chain.Fourthly,based on the group state thinking,the theoretical analysis framework of driving rare earth industry chain extension is constructed from two levels of innovation policy and enterprise capability,and the listed companies in the rare earth industry chain are used as research samples,the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fs QCA)method is adopted to explore the influence paths and dynamic evolution of different groupings on the extension of rare earth industry chain formed by the coupling of antecedent conditions such as financial subsidies,tax preferences,risk bearing level,raw material security capacity,scale level and property rights attributes.The study shows that individual antecedent conditions do not constitute the necessary conditions for achieving rare earth industry chain extension,but improving financial subsidies,raw material security capacity and scale level play a more universal and important role in driving rare earth enterprises to achieve the industry chain extension path;driving rare earth industry chain extension is the result of the synergistic effect of multiple antecedent conditions,and the effective combination of the preconditions promotes rare earth enterprises to achieve industry chain extension in a"different routes to the same destination"way.Finally,the article puts forward seven policy recommendations to promote the extension of China’s rare earth industry chain:(1)Continuously increase support for innovation policies and effectively improve the quality of scientific and technological innovation achievements.(2)Accelerate the improvement of the patent protection mechanism and promote the dissemination of technical standards in the rare earth industry in China.(3)Further deepen the mechanism of industry-academia-research cooperation and vigorously promote the effective transformation of patent achievements.(4)Further clarify and vigorously promote the development of the rare earth permanent magnet motor industry.(5)Create a favorable rare earth raw material supply pattern for the extension of the industry chain,and provide a secure guarantee for the stable supply of raw materials to downstream enterprises in the rare earth industry chain.(6)Build a business environment conducive to the extension of the industry chain and effectively enhance the investment attractiveness of downstream players in the industry chain.(7)Enhance the awareness of rare earth enterprises to achieve the extension of the industry chain,actively play the leading role of enterprises in achieving the extension of the industry chain,and improve the core capabilities of rare earth enterprises.