Latest News: US, Japan, and EU Collaborate to Reshape Rare Earth Supply Chain Amid China's Dominance, Triggering New Industry Variables
Views: 1 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-01-16 Origin: Site
Recently, the global supply chain competition surrounding the critical strategic material of rare earth magnets has intensified sharply. In January 2026, the United States, Japan, and the European Union are accelerating coordinated actions in an attempt to build a "de-sinicized" rare earth and magnet supply chain.
America's Aggressive Move: On January 14 local time, US President Trump signed a presidential proclamation, citing "national security threats," demanding that allied countries reach critical minerals agreements with the US within 180 days, or face new trade barriers including high tariffs and quota restrictions. This move is interpreted as directly targeting China's dominant position in the global rare earth magnet market, aiming to break the existing through tariff threats.
Japan's Urgent Follow-up: Prior to this, on January 10, Japanese Finance Minister, before visiting the US, also proposed to establish a so-called "democratic nations' rare earth supply chain" plan with the US and Europe, aiming to "deprive China of its ability to 'weaponize' rare earths". This reflects Japan's increasing concerns about supply chain security against the backdrop of China strengthening export controls on dual-use items to Japan, and its attempt to deeply integrate economic security with military alliances.
China's Dominance and Market Resilience: The backdrop for these actions is China's absolute dominant position in the global rare earth magnet market. Despite external pressure, demand from the Chinese market remains strong. One piece of evidence is that in November 2025, China's rare earth magnet exports to Japan actually increased instead of decreasing, reaching 304 tons, a significant month-on-month increase of 34.7%. This indicates that in the foreseeable short term, downstream industries still rely on China's high-performance magnet materials.
Clear Long-term Industry Trends: Setting aside geopolitical games, from the perspective of industrial development itself, the core position of rare earth permanent magnet materials in green economy sectors such as new energy vehicles and wind power is increasingly consolidated. The market expects that driven by the "dual carbon" goals, China's rare earth permanent magnet industry will a period of demand explosion from 2026 to 2030, with the market size projected to exceed 150 billion RMB by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 18%. In terms of technological pathways, the industry is undergoing a revolution towards "reducing rare earth dependence" (e.g., developing high-abundance rare earth permanent magnet technology) and "performance breakthroughs".
