Overview

• Two weeks after the June 27 framework agreement, China’s commerce ministry has approved only about 25 percent of pending export license applications, leaving magnet shipments largely stalled.
• The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India reports zero rare earth magnet imports since April and has urged New Delhi to formulate a national critical-materials policy.
• India’s ministries of heavy industries and mines are drafting incentive guidelines for domestic rare earth production while negotiating with Australia to secure early-stage mineral blocks.
• New supply-chain partnerships are advancing with Brazil’s Araxá niobium-rare earth project, metallurgical tests at Kazakhstan’s Akbulak site and Malaysia’s growing heavy rare earth oxide output.
• Analysts caution that reducing reliance on China’s roughly 90 percent global processing capacity will take years, underscoring persistent vulnerabilities in clean-tech and defense industries.