Rare Earths CEO Says China Must Keep Role as Major Supplier (1)

China should remain an important link in the global supply chain for rare-earth products given its technical expertise and competitiveness, according to Neo Performance Materials Inc., a major western maker of critical materials.

“China will remain, and frankly should remain, the dominant player in the space,” Neo’s Chief Executive Officer Rahim Suleman said in a Wednesday interview in Toronto. The Canadian firm has operations in China, as well as elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America.

Suleman was speaking on the sidelines of a rare-earths conference dominated by discussions of how to build supply chains that don’t run through ...