I just came across an interesting article about the scarcity of rare earth elements in the US. It turns out this is becoming a serious problem not only for defense but also for semiconductors. Several suppliers have already started refusing customer orders due to shortages.

The most intriguing part is that we're not talking about well-known materials but about less popular elements like yttrium and scandium. These are part of a family of 17 rare earth elements that are critical for modern technologies, especially in the aerospace sector and in the production of next-generation chips.

Kevin Michaels, a supply chain specialist in the aerospace industry, says that while the yttrium shortage hasn't yet halted jet engine production, manufacturers are clearly starting to get nervous. As for scandium, the situation is even more tense. Dylan Patel from the research firm SemiAnalysis noted that American semiconductor manufacturers are beginning to experience a severe scandium shortage, which could seriously impact the production of 5G chips.

This is a quite interesting case where rare earth elements become a bottleneck in the technology supply chain. When such constraints appear, it usually leads to a reevaluation of everything related to that segment. It's worth keeping an eye on how the situation develops.