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A lot has been made of recent news reports describing a world shortage in rare earth elements. These materials are used in many technological devices, including loudspeakers.

Although demand for rare earth elements is increasing all the time, there are few mines currently producing these materials: at present 97% of production comes from China, which is exporting less because of increasing internal demand.

This shortage has pushed prices up dramatically. According to this BBC report rare earth metal prices increased 1000% in the past year.

The implications for the loudspeaker industry are coming through loud and clear. Neodymium, the rare earth metal most commonly used within the magnets that are a vital component of most loudspeakers, has recently gone up from around $45 per kg to $450, according to this Reuters report. Because the materials developed at Warwick Audio Technologies don’t use any rare earth materials at all, we think our technology could provide an exciting solution to these issues.

Our flat, flexible speakers have always caught the imaginations of equipment manufacturers because they are extremely flexible and thin. But another very interesting feature of these speakers is that they do not use magnets. This makes them very lightweight, but it also means that they don’t require neodymium.

As the scramble for control over the rare earth metal supply chain intensifies we’ll be continuing some interesting conversations with OEMs who are looking for innovative ways to keep costs down for consumers and avoid exhausting these increasingly limited resources.