Japanese trading house Toyota Tsusho has reached a strategic deal with India to secure rare earths, the vital minerals used in high-tech goods from computers to electric cars, in a move that will help cut its dependence on China, the world’s dominant producer.
Toyota Tsusho, which is partly owned by Toyota Motors, said on Wednesday that it reached an agreement with Indian Rare Earths, a state-owned group, to build a plant in the eastern state of Orissa that will secure Japan about 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes a year of the precious minerals by 2012.
Japanese trading houses have been desperately trying to diversify their sources of rare earths since China, which produces 97 per cent of the key minerals, cut export quotas earlier this year.
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