How to read this. Each row is where United Kingdom imports a material from — the
immediate customs origin, sorted by single-supplier concentration. ⛏ marks a top source that is also
the material's lead miner (a genuine origin); without it, the supplier is a refiner or hub and the real
mine sits further upstream (open the material's profile to see where).
Import-vulnerability index (15/100). A value-weighted average, across United Kingdom’s
imports, of each material’s supply-risk index × how concentrated United Kingdom’s
own sourcing of it is. High when it buys intrinsically risky materials from a single supplier; lower when
it diversifies. The risk column below is the material’s own score — multiply it by the country’s
share to see where United Kingdom is most exposed.
China’s share of United Kingdom’s critical-material imports, 2002–2024: 1% ↑ 6%
| Material | Top source | share | import HHI | risk | China | # sources | imports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refined copper cathodes | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 99% | 0.99 | 23 | 0% | 8 | $94M |
| Natural borates | 🇹🇷 Turkey ⛏ | 91% | 0.83 | 42 | 2% | 9 | $2M |
| Magnesium, unwrought | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 82% | 0.69 | 60 | 82% | 8 | $10M |
| Fluorspar, >97% CaF2 | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 82% | 0.68 | 51 | 82% | 8 | $293k |
| Lithium carbonate | 🇨🇱 Chile | 82% | 0.68 | 64 | 0% | 8 | $38M |
| Tungsten, unwrought | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 80% | 0.66 | 46 | 80% | 11 | $6M |
| Ferro-niobium | 🇧🇷 Brazil ⛏ | 76% | 0.61 | 64 | 0% | 5 | $22M |
| Rare-earth permanent magnets | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 73% | 0.55 | 52 | 73% | 19 | $41M |
| Tantalum, unwrought | 🇨🇳 China | 72% | 0.57 | 33 | 72% | 9 | $12M |
| Cobalt oxides & hydroxides | 🇫🇮 Finland | 62% | 0.45 | 43 | 2% | 8 | $3M |
| Strontium carbonate | 🇩🇪 Germany | 60% | 0.39 | 57 | 8% | 8 | $220k |
| Natural graphite | 🇩🇪 Germany | 57% | 0.39 | 51 | 22% | 11 | $1M |
| Arsenic | 🇯🇵 Japan | 54% | 0.38 | 31 | 26% | 5 | $108k |
| Ferro-vanadium | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 52% | 0.33 | 45 | 52% | 8 | $4M |
| Nickel, unwrought | 🇳🇴 Norway | 51% | 0.32 | 32 | 0% | 8 | $99M |
| Beryllium, unwrought | 🇺🇸 United States ⛏ | 50% | 0.50 | 74 | 0% | 2 | $12k |
| Phosphate rock | 🇲🇦 Morocco | 50% | 0.40 | 31 | 0% | 6 | $409k |
| Phosphorus | 🇯🇵 Japan | 49% | 0.42 | 57 | 0% | 6 | $165k |
| Titanium, unwrought | 🇺🇸 United States | 45% | 0.39 | 43 | 1% | 18 | $123M |
| Gallium | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 44% | 0.27 | 57 | 44% | 18 | $68M |
| Germanium | 🇨🇳 China ⛏ | 44% | 0.27 | 44 | 44% | 18 | $68M |
| Hafnium, unwrought | 🇨🇳 China | 44% | 0.27 | 32 | 44% | 18 | $68M |
| Palladium, unwrought | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 41% | 0.25 | 25 | 0% | 17 | $926M |
| Feldspar | 🇹🇷 Turkey ⛏ | 39% | 0.24 | 25 | 0% | 8 | $3M |
| Platinum, unwrought | 🇿🇦 South Africa ⛏ | 39% | 0.22 | 39 | 0% | 18 | $1.1B |
| Baryte | 🇳🇴 Norway | 35% | 0.22 | 15 | 21% | 13 | $7M |
| Antimony, unwrought | 🇮🇳 India | 35% | 0.24 | 35 | 17% | 6 | $2M |
| Silicon, < 99.99% | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 34% | 0.24 | 47 | 30% | 12 | $153M |
| Manganese ore | 🇨🇳 China | 34% | 0.24 | 46 | 34% | 7 | $3M |
| Aluminium ores / bauxite | 🇨🇳 China | 33% | 0.20 | 45 | 33% | 10 | $8M |
| Helium | 🇩🇿 Algeria | 32% | 0.21 | 22 | 4% | 15 | $121M |
| Coking coal | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 25% | 0.16 | 24 | 0% | 11 | $209M |
Computed from out/flows_2024.json + out/data.json by build_profiles.py. Customs records the immediate shipper, not the mine — see methodology.