U.S. firms scramble to secure rare-earth magnets

In June, China’s rare land magnets exports to the United States increased by more than seven times since the previous month, because American firms seize critical elements following a front Chinese-US trade agreement.

In April, Beijing imposed a few critical magnets used in advanced technology, such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and MRI machines, and required companies to obtain licenses for export. The movement was seen as retaliation against US President Donald Trump’s upright tariffs in China.

Beijing has a throat on the production of rare soil magnets with a similar grip in the refining of rare soil elements used to make magnets as well as the estimation of the market.

In June, the United States received approximately 353 metric tons of rare land permanent magnets and an increase of 660% compared to the previous month, showed data published by China’s general administration, but export was about half of June last year.

The US was the second largest target for China’s rare earth magnets, as the major production sector is based on imports, especially for automotive, electronic and renewable energy.

In total, China exported 3,188 metric tons of rare tons of permanent magnet last month, approximately 160% from May, but 38% lower than the same period last year.

The growth in export came after an agreement on a trade framework that includes the return of some American technology restrictions for post -American technology restrictions for shipments to China, as well as alleviating China’s rare land exports last month by Washington and Beijing.

Ai Behemoth Nvidia Last week, exports were planned to be sent to China after the export was restricted in April. Last month, the work of American AI CHIP software companies in China had also returned.

China Rarely Earth Magnet Manufacturers started to announce Approval of export licenses last month.

If exports continue to increase, it will provide great benefit for companies that suffer from magnet shortage due to a long period of time to secure export licenses. For example, several European automobile suppliers had to stop production in recent months.

Magnet famine also hit developing industries such as humanoid robotics. In April, Elon Musk said that the production of Tesla’s optimus humanoid robots was broken.

China’s controls on the rare land sector encouraged some global governments to re -examine rare land supply chains and search for ways to support local mining of minerals.

However, experts say that it can take years to create alternatives to China’s rare earth magnet supply chain, because it requires a process of rare soil element refining and separation.

“The separation process is quite complex and China has many advantages after doing research on processes,” said Yue Wang, the senior advisor of Nadir Earths in Wood Mackenzie.

A way to try to compensate for the lack of rare earth magnets of the United States is to be increasing recycling. Apple and mining materials announced A 500 million dollar agreement Last week, the iPhone manufacturer to improve a recycling facility that will strengthen the US magnet supply chain.

Peter Alexander of Financial Consultancy Z-Ben Advisors said Washington’s latest concessions on technology restrictions, China’s CNBC’s “Chinese connection” on Monday, a reflection of how much removing it in the trade relationship with the United States.