The U.S. Cannot Get Rid of Its Dependence on China`s Rare Earth Magnets

Perhaps the United States is prepared for the interruption of the supply of strategic resources in rare earth mines, but it still cannot get rid of its dependence on China`s rare-earth magnets. Citigroup`s recent report pointed out that nearly two-thirds of the US`s magnet supply comes from China, and industries other than US defense [have no ready-made ways" to get rid of its dependence on China`s rare earth supply.

Rare earth magnets are powerful permanent magnets composed of rare earth element alloys. Among them, the most common neodymium magnets are widely used in various appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, vehicles, and jewelry buttons. They are even more valuable than rare earth metals themselves. In addition, rare earth magnets are also considered essential materials in many military weapons.

Citigroup`s report pointed out that China`s total magnet exports last year reached 1.7 billion U.S. dollars (about 11.78 billion yuan), of which U.S. imports of about 395 million U.S. dollars, 257 million U.S. dollars came from mainland China. Citi Metal analysts said that if the ban extends to processed rare earth products, especially magnets and motors, or prohibits transshipment to third countries, it will have a serious impact.

According to the report, if China only imposes restrictions on the export of rare earth metals and rare earth alloys to the United States, and the processing capacity outside China is rapidly built, the United States can still cope. However, if the scope of restrictions is extended to manufactured products such as magnets and permanent magnet motors, the situation will be much more serious, and certain special industries in the United States may therefore fall into the dilemma of supply interruption.

It is worth mentioning that the Rare Earth Magnet processing plants outside China are mainly in Japan and Germany, but the rare earths of these two countries also rely on China for imports. Even if other countries also have rare earth mines, their rare earth processing is still inseparable from China. Data show that for every 50,000 tons of rare earth minerals outside of China, only about 8,600 tons have nothing to do with China. For certain rare earth elements, this proportion is even smaller. For example, analysts at Citigroup, like the heavy rare-earth element dysprosium used in the production of magnets, there is no considerable scale of separation capacity outside of China.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading our article and we hope it can help you to better understand why the U.S. cannot get rid of its dependence on China`s rare-earth magnets. If you want to learn more about magnets, we would like to advise you to visit Stanford Magnets for more information.

As a leading magnet supplier across the world, Stanford Magnets has been involved in R&D, manufacturing, and sales of magnets since the 1990s. It provides customers with high-quality permanent magnets like SmCo magnets, neodymium magnets, AlNiCo magnets, and ferrite magnets (ceramic magnets) at a very competitive price.