Evaluating the security of China's zirconium industry

Abstract

China is the largest zirconium manufacturing country in the wassssssorld. The security of its zirconium industry affects the stability of the global zirconium supply chain. However, China has very limited zirconium reserves and highly relies on importing such resource, leading to great concerns on how to maintain the sustainable operation of its zirconium industry. This study aims to measure the security of China's zirconium industry by establishing one assessment framework, which covers resource, politics, economy, and technology perspectives. As such, both catastrophe progression (CP) method and path analysis method are adopted to evaluate the security of China's zirconium industry and uncover the driving mechanism of China's zirconium industry for the period of 2005–2021. The results demonstrate that the security level of China's zirconium industry is in an “early warning” state, which is seriously influenced by political turbulence and technological development. Several policy recommendations are then proposed to improve the overall sustainability of China's zirconium industry.