Supply chain risks of critical metals: Sources, propagation, and responses

Abstract

In the era of globalization, industries of critical metals are organized through the global supply chain. However, the global supply chains have been disrupted since 2020 by the outbreak of COVID-19 and a series of geopolitical crises. To better address the supply chain challenges of critical metals, a review is needed about the sources, propagation, and responses of the supply chain risks. Firstly, this review provides an overview about the research progress in identifying the risk sources and assessing the risks and then proposes a new supply chain framework, categorizing relevant risk factors into upstream risks, middle-stream risks, downstream risks, and general risks, for risk analysis of critical metals. Secondly, this review offers a comprehensive understanding about how the risks propagate horizontally and vertically. Finally, responses such as supply diversification, stockpiling, material substitution, recycling and circular economy strategy, price volatility hedging, and supply chain traceability are reviewed. This survey features the supply chain perspective, overviews on network-based studies, and affirms the urgency and need for further studies on supply chain risks and resilience, which may contribute to a smooth clean energy transition.

The Inevitable Collapse of Advanced Industrial Society.

“…Other metals, such as antimony, bismuth, boron, copper, zinc, lead and so on, are also becoming depleted over time, and are not being recycled as much as they ought to, or need to be, in our wasteful society see Henckens, Driessen and Worrell (2014 [46]); Sverdrup, Olafsdottir and Ragnarsdottir (2019 [47]); and Sun (2022 [48]) points out the vulnerability of the supply of critical metals to the breakdown of global supply chains due to geopolitical crises.…”

Transatlantic strategic convergence on China and the scramble for critical minerals

“…The concentrated production of CM places supply chains at severe risk of disruption from unintentional supply shocks, which could be triggered by events such as political instability or natural disasters. Indeed, there are numerous potential bottlenecks in upstream, middle-stream, downstream and the whole supply chain (Sun, 2022). Collaborative efforts to monitor supply chain risks, disruptions and market trends can allow for early detection of potential issues and enable timely responses.…”

Transmission Mechanism of Post-COVID-19 Emergency Supply Chain Based on Complex Network: An Improved SIR Model

“…Therefore, the study of supply chain risk propagation mechanisms is very important to ensure the sustainability of emergency supply chains. In a literature review, using a novel supply chain framework that divides pertinent risk variables into upstream risk, midstream risk, downstream risk, and general risk for risk analysis, Sun et al [23] presented the progress in risk source identification and risk assessment. Some scholars focus on studying supply chain risk propagation with the classical epidemic model.…”

“…[22] (Zhao, Chen, Wang, & Han, 2018) Emergency supply chains are prone to emergent event propagation effects in uncertain environments. [23] (X. Sun, 2022) Presenting the study's progress on risk source identification and risk assessment.…”