Rare Earths – China gets tough
At the end of last week, the Chinese government tightened and expanded its licensing procedures for the export of critical minerals in general and rare earths in particular.
FX & Commodity Research
10/17/2025
What did China do?
After China introduced export licensing procedures for a whole range of critical raw materials over the past few months, a licensing procedure for rare earths was also launched for the first time on April 4. Since then, foreign companies have had to apply for licenses from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) if they want to import one of seven rare earths from China. As this licensing procedure was introduced with immediate effect and without warning, and according to the Ministry of Commerce, processing the applications takes at least six weeks, Chinese exports of rare earths, their oxides, metal alloys, and products containing rare earths declined significantly in April and May. Permanent magnets are by far the most important product containing rare earths and affected by the regulation.
At the beginning of October, it was announced that this licensing procedure would be expanded in three respects starting December 1 : First, it will be extended to include five additional elements, bringing the total to twelve. In addition, in the future, all products whose value consists of even 0.1% of one of the affected Chinese rare earths will be affected.
For full text see attached PDF-Version.
