On Friday 4 April 2025, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced export controls ( https://lnkd.in/ewU45sHP ) on various rare-earth materials and compounds, including Sm metal, compounds, and alloys (including Sm-Co magnets and alloys); Tb metal, compounds and alloys (including Nd-Fe-B magnets and alloys containing Tb); and Dy metal, compounds and alloys (including Nd-Fe-B magnets and alloys containing Dy). Other rare-earth metals, compounds and alloys were included in the announcement.
The MOFCOM announcement went on to instruct exporters of such materials to apply for an export license, noting and declaring potential “dual-use items” ostensibly in the context of non-proliferation regulations. Many countries, including the USA and China, have restrictions concerning dual-use items.
Despite the usual misinformation / disinformation from certain quarters, the announcement did not contain any reference to physical restrictions or bans of exports of these materials. Nor was any particular country targeted in the announcement. This is in contrast to the 3 December 2024 MOFCOM announcement ( https://lnkd.in/eSke2scW ) concerning the actual prohibition of exports of gallium, germanium and “superhard materials” to certain US customers, for defense purposes, and greater scrutiny on graphite exports.
While it is perhaps not surprising that the MOFCOM announcement was timed in the same week that the USA announced new tariffs on goods originating from China (and elsewhere), there should be no surprise at all that such an announcement on rare earths was made in the first place, following the MOFCOM announcement on 21 December 2023 ( https://lnkd.in/eqqDMT_8 ), that processing equipment and know-how for the production of rare-earth permanent magnets and materials had been added to China’s Catalogue of Export Prohibited and Restricted Technologies (https://lnkd.in/ehXfZFYG ). On 4 February 2025, MOFCOM announced similar export controls (not restrictions or prohibitions) on items containing tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium ( https://lnkd.in/egAd9xaF ).
It remains to be seen how the announcement will affect importers of rare-earth magnets and materials from China.
#REEs #rareearths
