We will find and qualify NdFeB magnet sources in China against your written specification, and write into the order the composition disclosure on which China's export licence turns.
Send us the grade, the minimum intrinsic coercivity (Hcj) you need at your operating temperature, the coating, dimensions, quantity and end use. We come back with what the specification needs to say, which documents a licence would require from you, and the sources we would qualify against it. → Ask about rare earth magnets
China's April 2025 export controls on rare earths do not list "magnets". They list three magnet items, each defined by what it contains: samarium-cobalt magnet material, NdFeB magnet material containing terbium, and NdFeB magnet material containing dysprosium. The text sets no content threshold, and in China's 2026 dual-use licensing catalogue all three rows have an empty customs-code column. Two NdFeB magnets under the same tariff line can sit on opposite sides of the licence requirement, and the document most buyers hold, a datasheet with a grade such as N42SH, does not say which side theirs is on.
The grade letter is a coercivity (Hcj) and temperature class, and the datasheets we read print no composition. So the question that decides whether a Chinese exporter needs a dual-use licence (China's licence for items with both civil and military uses) for your order — is there terbium or dysprosium in this magnet? — is usually one the buyer cannot answer from the paperwork in hand. On our reading, that gap, not a shortage of ore, is the first problem a buyer outside China meets in the rare earth magnet supply chain.
Nami Tech Solutions (NTS) finds and qualifies sources in China for buyers in Korea and beyond against a written specification. For magnets we will do the same on request, and the specification is where the work is: we write the composition-disclosure, coercivity-at-temperature, coating and traceability lines into the order, and, when a licence is needed, help the buyer assemble the end-user documents the Chinese exporter will ask for. Finished magnets are not a catalogue line for us; neodymium oxide, the feedstock, is. This article sets out the rules we would hold a magnet specification to.
The page runs in this order: what China's text lists, what the grade letter does and does not tell you, where production is concentrated, what Korean customs data show, what is operating outside China, and what to write into an RFQ.
Disclaimer: This article is general practical information, not legal, customs or export-control advice, and it guarantees no classification or licensing determination for any shipment. Confirm each transaction with the Chinese exporter, a licensed customs broker (관세사) and qualified counsel. Status as of 5 November 2026: the suspension of China's October 2025 additions runs, on its own text, to 10 November 2026, and that date may change after publication.
What the April 2025 Text Actually Lists
MOFCOM and Customs Announcement No. 18 of 2025, in force from publication on 4 April 2025, placed seven medium and heavy rare earths under dual-use licensing: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium, each with its metal, alloys, targets, oxide and compounds. Only three of the seven get a magnet item.
Note 3 says the material controlled under these items includes magnets or magnet powder (磁体或磁粉). Three readings follow, and then what the regulator has added.
Gadolinium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium have no magnet item. Gadolinium's metal-and-alloy item (1C903.a) stops at metal, two named alloys and targets, so a gadolinium-substituted NdFeB magnet with no terbium or dysprosium is not one of No. 18's magnet items.
There is no percentage. The items say 含铽 and 含镝, "containing terbium" and "containing dysprosium", and stop there. The text sets no threshold; whether that brings in any trace, it does not say, and we do not say it for it.
The HS code does not decide. No. 18's metal, oxide and compound rows carry reference customs codes; the magnet rows do not. The 2026 dual-use licensing catalogue (in force 1 January 2026) leaves all three customs-code cells empty, and its explanatory note three says a listed item needs a licence whether or not a code is printed against it. Its 168 pages mention heading 8505 only for superconducting electromagnets and pole blocks; subheading 8505.11, under which a finished NdFeB magnet is declared, does not appear. The licence turns on composition, which the tariff line does not record.
The regulator has said where "magnet material" stops. In a published FAQ of 21 April 2025 (两用物项常见问题解答之四), MOFCOM's export control bureau said that primary products made by simple further processing of the three magnet materials, such as slices, arc segments, rings and related magnet assemblies (片、瓦、环以及相关磁组件), are within the control whatever they are called in trade, while electronic components made by further deep processing, such as motors, and electronic products such as loudspeakers and earphones, are not.
A second FAQ of 16 September 2025 (之五) adds that rotor and stator assemblies with magnets embedded in or mounted on an iron core or steel plate are deep-processed products that "generally" (一般) fall outside No. 18.
Neither FAQ gives a terbium or dysprosium percentage for magnets; the April FAQ's worked examples for other items count low contents, an aluminium alloy powder with 1% scandium and a desiccant with 0.15% dysprosium oxide, but those are examples for alloys and mixtures. Where a magnet assembly ends and a deep-processed component begins is for the exporter and the authorities to settle item by item.
The licence map for oxides and salts, including the point that neodymium reaches dual-use only through terbium- or dysprosium-containing magnets, is in our rare earth compounds import guide.
Why the Declaration Matters Even for Magnets That Are Not Controlled
No. 18 puts identification on the exporter: the export declaration's remarks field must state whether the goods are a controlled item and, if so, give the control code. Where customs doubts the declaration it will challenge it (质疑), and the goods are not released while the challenge is open (质疑期间出口货物不予放行).
On our reading that clause reaches a magnet with no terbium or dysprosium as well: the remark that it is not a controlled item is the exporter's statement, and the goods wait if customs doubts it. No. 18 does not spell out which exports must carry the remark. Announcement No. 57 of 2025, one of the October 2025 announcements that No. 70 suspended before it took effect, is explicit where No. 18 is not: goods that are not controlled but are close in parameters must be marked "not a controlled item" with the specific parameters. The challenge procedure, set out in Announcement No. 52 of 2026, is covered in our suspension scenarios article.
We found no wire-service or official report of magnets without terbium or dysprosium being held at Chinese customs in April–June 2025, only a supplier's blog mentioning random checks. The point is our reading of the text, not a reported case: a declaration the exporter cannot support with composition data is one customs can challenge.
The Grade Letter Is a Coercivity Class, Not a Composition
Sintered NdFeB grades are an energy-product number plus a suffix: N42, N42SH, N35AH. Buyers associate the suffix with dysprosium; what it states is a minimum intrinsic coercivity (Hcj) and, by convention, a working temperature.
Eclipse Magnetics' sintered NdFeB grade sheet (undated). The sheet marks the temperatures "only for reference, it is dependent on the circuit", at a length-to-diameter ratio of 0.7. kOe values are approximate conversions. The sheet also lists one BH grade (3,000 kA/m, 230 °C).
The ladder is a convention, not a common rule. Shin-Etsu's N-series page gives its H grade as 1,273 kA/m (16 kOe) minimum and uses letters of its own (TH, TS, AS, MH, SA, UA, ZA); Arnold's GB48SH sheet gives Hcj minimum 22,000 Oe for an SH grade. China's national standard GB/T 13560-2017 and IEC 60404-8-1 (2023) are listed as current, but we did not obtain either text and cannot say whether either defines the suffixes.
None of the datasheets we read states composition — two Arnold sheets, the Eclipse sheet and the Shin-Etsu page give magnetic and physical properties. Shin-Etsu's page does group some grades under a "Grain Boundary Diffusion-Type" heading, which names a process but not which heavy rare earth was diffused or how much. Shin-Etsu described its grain-boundary diffusion process in 2011 as one that "greatly reduces the use of dysprosium", and its grades made that way, such as N54SH-HGF, carry the usual letters. Daido Steel and Honda announced in July 2016 a hot-deformed NdFeB magnet with no heavy rare earth added, for a hybrid motor. A high-coercivity magnet can thus be made with dysprosium throughout, with a heavy rare earth concentrated at the grain boundaries, or, in at least one announced case, with no heavy rare earth added. The grade letter does not distinguish these, so it cannot tell you whether 1C904.a.4 or 1C905.a.4 applies.
The converse also holds: a magnet described as heavy-rare-earth-free is not thereby documented as outside No. 18. What the exporter can show customs is the practical question, and a marketing description is not composition data.
Samarium, Holmium and the 0.1% Rule
Samarium-cobalt is not a way around No. 18. It is 1C902.a.4, one of the three controlled magnet items.
Holmium has its own item, suspended before it took effect. MOFCOM and Customs Announcement No. 57 of 2025 lists 含钬的永磁材料 (1C909.a.4): permanent magnet material containing holmium, not limited to NdFeB, again covering magnets or magnet powder. No. 57 was due on 8 November 2025; No. 70 of 7 November 2025 suspended it, on its text until 10 November 2026.
The 0.1% rule is about magnets made outside China. MOFCOM Announcement No. 61 of 2025 reaches foreign-made rare earth magnets and sputtering targets containing 0.1% or more by value of listed Chinese-origin rare earth material. It is not a threshold for magnets exported from China, and No. 61 is among the announcements No. 70 suspended until 10 November 2026.
No. 18 is not among the announcements No. 70 names, so the end, extension or lapse of that suspension does not by itself touch the three magnet items; what turns on it is whether holmium magnets and the 0.1% rule apply. The dates and the ways they could resolve are in our suspension scenarios article.
Upstream: Where Alloy and Powder Sit in the Other Catalogue
China licenses exports through two systems, the dual-use regime No. 18 belongs to and a separate general export licence catalogue with its own clock; our licence deadline guide explains which one a shipment is under. For magnets the split falls in an unexpected place.
The 2026 general export licence catalogue has a rare earths entry covering ores, metals, oxides and compounds. NdFeB alloy is not in it. The alloy lines sit under "certain metals and products" (部分金属及制品), in the primary iron and steel products group (初级钢铁产品), alongside every other ferro-alloy line of heading 7202:
- 7202991100 钕铁硼合金速凝永磁片 — NdFeB alloy, rapidly solidified permanent-magnet flake
- 7202991200 钕铁硼合金磁粉 — NdFeB alloy magnet powder
- 7202991900 其他钕铁硼合金 — other NdFeB alloy
MOFCOM and Customs Announcement No. 79 of 2025 brought certain iron and steel products under export licensing from 1 January 2026, with applications made on the export contract and the manufacturer's quality inspection certificate. We did not obtain its annex, but the 2026 catalogue's group heading is where the NdFeB alloy lines appear. That is a steel-trade measure that takes in NdFeB alloy, not a rare earth control, and we could not establish how quickly these licences issue. Heading 8505 does not appear in the catalogue.
Read with No. 18, on the texts we read, NdFeB alloy and alloy powder are on the general export licence catalogue whatever their composition; finished magnets under heading 8505 are not on it, and No. 18 lists an NdFeB magnet only where it contains terbium or dysprosium (No. 57 would add holmium if it comes into effect). On the wording of No. 18's note 3, magnet powder containing either element is also a dual-use item, and the catalogue's notice exempts goods that have obtained a dual-use licence from the general one. This is a reading of the item lists. It does not cover controls that turn on the end user or the end use.
The Concentration Is Tighter Below the Mine
The usual picture of a critical materials bottleneck is a mine. For rare earth magnets the figures put it further down.
The USGS world total is rounded, so the mining share is approximate. The IEA's 2026 edition is reported, via a central bank research note, to put China's 2025 mining share at 59% and magnet rare earth refining at 84%; we could not obtain it, and its definitions may differ.
Heavy rare earth feedstock leans on Myanmar, where, the IEA records, an armed group announced in November 2024 that it had taken control of the rare earth mining region, local mining halted and borders closed; as of March 2025 a gradual flow of existing inventories to China had restarted, with the border still strictly controlled. ISP-Myanmar, compiling Chinese customs data, puts Myanmar at 53% of China's rare earth imports in January–September 2025.
Chinese supply is also planned rather than published. The IEA notes a 2024 mining quota rise of under 6%, against over 20% in earlier years. Interim measures on total-volume control of rare earth mining and separation (《稀土开采和稀土冶炼分离总量调控管理暂行办法》), dated July 2025 and made public that August, bring imported ore and monazite into the control and contain no provision for publishing the quotas; the first 2025 batch was reported as not made public. The quotas are reported to be held by state-owned groups.
What April and May 2025 Did, in Two Sets of Numbers
China's rare earth magnet exports, reported, mostly from Chinese customs data, by Reuters, a Chinese metals price-reporting service and others, show the shock and the recovery. The IEA's 2025 outlook puts the 2024 rise at around 28% for permanent magnet materials without stating the basis, so the 2024 figure below is Adamas' alone. We did not obtain the customs data, and no source we found states which customs codes the figure covers.
Line stoppages were reported at Ford and Suzuki in May–June 2025, and the European supplier association CLEPA said on 4 June 2025 that several European lines and plants had stopped, with about a quarter of several hundred licence applications approved.
Korea's own customs data show the same shock independently. Korea's ten-digit tariff code (HSK) has no rare earth magnet subheading: 8505.11 splits into 8505.11.1000 (alnico) and 8505.11.9000 (other), so the figures below are permanent magnets of metal other than alnico, a line in which rare earth magnets sit alongside other non-alnico metal magnets. Ferrite magnets fall outside it.
Korea Customs Service trade statistics; weight of goods as imported, value CIF.
- The shock. Imports of the line from China were 151.2 t in May 2025 against 739.4 t in May 2024, down 79.5%, close to the reported Chinese figure for that month. By July 2025 they were near the previous year's level; September 2025's 928.6 t exceeded every month of 2024.
- The concentration since. January–September 2026 imports from China were 6,118.6 t, up 40.8% on the same months of 2025 (and up 32.9% on the same months of 2024), and China's share rises in every year of the table. The second-largest origin, the Philippines, fell from 961.3 t in 2023 to 152.9 t in January–September 2026.
- What the value column is not. A mixed line's average value moves when the mix moves; these are not price movements.
Korea's 2026 tariff on 8505.11.9000 is 8% basic, and 1.6% under the Korea–China FTA where origin requirements are met.
Outside China: What Is Operating, and What Is Announced
Capacity outside China is real but early; an announcement is not output. Status is as each filing or report states it.
Shin-Etsu, an established producer in Japan and Vietnam, is reported at about 3,400 t a year. In Korea, KSM Metals makes neodymium metal and NdFeB alloy, not magnets (reported 1,300 t a year), and POSCO International's US joint venture with ReElement plans production from 2028, separation first and magnets later.
The units differ by row; do not add them. On the latest reporting we found, Lynas is the one producer separating dysprosium and terbium at commercial scale outside China; the others are commissioning or announced. A magnet plant outside China does not by itself change where its heavy rare earths were separated.
What to Write Into the RFQ and the Specification
- Specify Hcj at temperature, not a grade letter. Write the minimum Hcj at your operating temperature and the geometry it applies to. The grade letter is a class, not a composition.
- Require element-by-element composition. Ask for terbium, dysprosium, holmium and gadolinium in wt%, stated by the manufacturer, and whether grain-boundary diffusion is used. It is the document that shows whether No. 18's wording applies to your magnet.
- Ask the exporter for its control determination in writing — controlled or not, and under which code — matching what will go into the declaration remarks field.
- If the magnet contains terbium or dysprosium, plan for a dual-use licence. The Chinese exporter applies; the end-user and end-use certificate comes from you. Our licence application guide covers the documents and the 45-working-day review. General licences, reported as granted to a small number of selected exporters, are not something to plan around.
- Verify composition on the first lot. ICP-OES, a laboratory elemental assay, can measure dysprosium and terbium, with correction for spectral interference. In grain-boundary-diffused magnets dysprosium is concentrated near the surface, so a surface reading may not represent the whole magnet. Our sample evaluation protocol is written for powders, but its point that the test and the sampling must be written into the contract applies here too.
- Know who made the magnet. A composition statement is only as good as the manufacturer's document behind it; the questions about who controls the production site are in our supplier due diligence checklist.
- State the coating and the test it must pass. This page does not set test values; they are agreed per order.
- Keep origin records per lot. They also matter if you incorporate or resell the magnets abroad and No. 61's rule on foreign-made magnets comes into effect.
- Settle magnetised or unmagnetised shipment. Magnetised material is regulated for air transport under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations; confirm the limits with your forwarder.
What This Page Does Not Say
Some things are not on this page because they depend on the order, and we establish them for each inquiry rather than publish them: which producers will state element-by-element composition against a named grade, and what each says in writing about licences; current prices for magnets, dysprosium and terbium; and lead times, including how long a licence is taking. Our rare earth oxides and salts page lists neodymium oxide as magnet material feedstock and states that alloy and downstream magnet processing are outside our scope; NTS does not make or process magnets, and the sourcing and specification work described here is done on request, not sold as a catalogue product.
Buying NdFeB magnets and unable to tell from your documents whether they need a Chinese export licence? NTS will find and qualify magnet sources in China against a written specification, will write the composition-disclosure, Hcj-at-temperature, coating and traceability lines into the order, and will help you assemble the end-user documents the Chinese exporter asks for when a licence is needed; the Chinese exporter files the application. If you already have a supplier, we can review the specification alone. Write to [email protected] or use the inquiry form with the grade, the Hcj you need at your operating temperature, the coating, dimensions and quantity, the destination and the end use — the last because the licence documents turn on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are all NdFeB magnets under Chinese export control?
No. Announcement No. 18 of 2025 lists NdFeB permanent magnet material containing terbium (1C904.a.4) or dysprosium (1C905.a.4), plus samarium-cobalt (1C902.a.4). An NdFeB magnet with neither element is not one of those items, but the text sets no threshold and does not say whether a trace counts. MOFCOM's April 2025 FAQ puts simply processed magnets and related magnet assemblies inside the control and motors outside it. On our reading of No. 18, the exporter still has to state on the declaration whether the goods are a controlled item.
Does an SH grade contain dysprosium?
Not necessarily, and the datasheet will not say. SH is a coercivity class, roughly 20 kOe minimum Hcj on common ladders. High coercivity can be reached with dysprosium throughout or by grain-boundary diffusion, and a magnet with no heavy rare earth added has been announced for a hybrid motor; the letter does not say which was used. Only the manufacturer's composition data settles it.
Is there a minimum terbium or dysprosium content before a magnet is controlled?
The text of No. 18 sets none; the items read "containing terbium" and "containing dysprosium". Whether that brings in any trace, the text does not say. Ask the exporter for its written determination and the composition behind it.
Does China's 0.1% rare earth rule apply to magnets shipped from China?
No. The 0.1%-by-value rule is in MOFCOM Announcement No. 61 of 2025 and concerns foreign-made magnets and targets containing listed Chinese-origin rare earth material; Announcement No. 70 suspended it until 10 November 2026 on its text. Magnets exported from China fall under Announcement No. 18 of 2025, whose text sets no threshold.
Is samarium-cobalt a way around China's rare earth magnet export control?
No. Samarium-cobalt permanent magnet material is item 1C902.a.4 of China's Announcement No. 18 of 2025, one of its three controlled magnet items.
Who applies for China's export licence for magnets, the buyer or the exporter?
The Chinese exporter applies. The buyer supplies the end-user and end-use certificate. If the magnet contains terbium or dysprosium, plan for a dual-use licence and for the review time that comes with it.
References (Public Sources)
Held in full and read directly: MOFCOM and Customs Announcements No. 18 (4 April 2025, as reproduced by Hong Kong's Trade and Industry Department), No. 57 (9 October 2025) and No. 70 (7 November 2025) of 2025; MOFCOM and Customs Announcement No. 79 of 2025 (body, as reproduced by Hong Kong's Trade and Industry Department; annex not obtained); MOFCOM export control bureau FAQs on dual-use items No. 4 (21 April 2025) and No. 5 (16 September 2025); the 2026 dual-use licensing catalogue, 168 pages; the 2026 export licence management goods catalogue; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, rare earths; IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025, pages 163, 164 and 172; Korea Customs Service import statistics for HSK 8505.11, 2023 to September 2026, and the 2026 tariff schedule; Lynas' ASX announcement of 18 June 2025; Iluka's ASX announcement of 6 December 2024; Eclipse Magnetics' and Arnold Magnetic's datasheets; Shin-Etsu's N-series page (read online) and 2011 environmental and social report; ISP-Myanmar's report of 27 November 2025.
Read partially or through secondary sources: MP Materials' 10-Q filings for Q1 and Q2 2026 and Energy Fuels' 8-K of 13 October 2026, read in part; Chinese magnet export tonnages, through Reuters (as republished), a Chinese metals price-reporting service, Adamas Intelligence and Metalnomist; Announcement No. 52 of 2026 and Announcement No. 61 of 2025, through summaries; the 2025 interim measures on total-volume control, through a full-text reprint, and reporting on unpublished quotas; the IEA's 2026 edition, through a central bank research note; Daido Steel and Honda's 2016 announcement, through a summary; trade-press reporting on Neo, Shin-Etsu, Solvay and KSM Metals; POSCO International's release of 27 May 2026; reporting on Ford, Suzuki and CLEPA; reporting on general licences; registry listings for GB/T 13560-2017 and IEC 60404-8-1:2023; ICP-OES application notes and an abstract on dysprosium distribution in diffused magnets.
What we could not confirm: China's customs data and the codes behind the reported magnet export figures; the texts of GB/T 13560-2017 and IEC 60404-8-1; any quantified heavy-rare-earth reduction from grain-boundary diffusion; China's total magnet production; the 2025 and 2026 quotas; No. 61's annex; any report of uncontrolled magnets held at customs in April–June 2025; measured magnet licence times since December 2025; and current IATA figures for magnetised material.
