China has expanded its export controls on rare-earth elements, adding new items to a growing list of restricted materials and processing technologies. The updated rules, which take effect in December, cover not just elements like holmium, thulium, erbium, and ytterbium, but also the technical know-how around how they’re turned into magnets.
In a mirror of U.S. semiconductor export policy, Chinese officials framed the move as a national security imperative and signaled that licenses will be denied for end-uses tied to defense or semiconductors. Under the new rules, which are an extension of those announced in April, foreign companies will need China’s permission to export magnets that contain trace amounts of rare-earth materials sourced from China, or were produced using the country’s extraction methods. As the dominant supplier of rare earth minerals globally, China exerting more pressure on supply could have knock-on effects.
