The European Commission is analysing a list of 20 different substances including minor metals that could prove critical for trade on the continent, it said as it confirmed it will finalise the list by the end of the year. The commission’s decision to compile the list follows concerns in Brussels about Europe’s competitiveness in the market for some minor metals amid growing Chinese and Indian consumption. “We are analysing a list of 20 different substances, including minor metals, to see if access to them may be seen as critical,” a representative for the enterprise and industry directorate told MB. Although he declined to reveal the metals concerned, an article on the commission’s news website, Euractiv.com, named titanium, niobium and platinum as “potentially critical”, while chromite, vanadium, tantalum and manganese were also named as possible additions. The commission noted the importance of silicon, gallium, selenium and indium for new technologies including copper-indium-gallium-selenium (Cigs) solar cells. According to...