'End of an era': 200 jobs lost, unique smelter shuts
A unique smelter shutdown removes metal processing capacity and tightens supply of its output.
Source →The trace
How it reaches your house.
Starting from Smelter SO2 off-gas (byproduct acid), we walked the supply graph hop by hop to the goods you buy and the companies you own. Each step is the engine’s reasoning, scored for confidence and cited where a source backs it.
First impact
Smelter SO2 off-gas (byproduct acid) →Shortage riskSmelter SO2 off-gas is a critical supply input for sulfuric acid, so loss of off-gas from the shutdown tightens sulfuric acid availability.
78% confidenceSmelter SO2 off-gas (byproduct acid) →Stands to benefitAs a reported 35% supplier of this input, China could benefit from tighter competing off-gas/byproduct-acid supply, though the country-share evidence has only moderate confidence.
45% confidenceHop 2
China →Shortage riskThe supplied edge says China accounts for 95% of terbium metal supply, making global terbium availability highly exposed if the China node is constrained, with confidence discounted for the extra indirectness from byproduct acid to rare-earth metal output.
55% confidenceChina →Shortage riskThe supplied edge says China accounts for 98% of gallium supply, so a China-linked tightening from the byproduct-acid shock can transmit into global gallium availability, though the acid-to-gallium production mechanism is indirect.
52% confidenceSulfuric acid →Prices riseHop 3
Terbium (Tb) Metal →Shortage riskTerbium metal supply tightness propagates to rare earth magnets because the graph marks terbium as a critical magnet input with dependency_strength 0.85.
74% confidenceGallium →Prices riseGallium is marked as a critical input to semiconductors and chips with a 0.5 dependency strength, so tightened gallium availability is likely to raise costs for affected chip segments, though not all semiconductors use gallium.
62% confidenceElemental Sulfur (from Oil/Gas Processing) →Stands to benefit
Where it lands
What you buy, and what you own.
Goods you buy
Sulfuric acid · Rare earth magnets · Semiconductors and chips · Fertilizers and crop inputs
In the MyPRIA app, this is checked against your own holdings.