The fifth online event of the Rare Earth Roundtable Series, hosted by EIT RawMaterials for the MAGELLAN Project delved into the regulatory and policy frameworks shaping the rare earths value chain across the globe.
Recent tariff wars, export controls, and growing efforts to reduce dependency on critical imports have placed rare earths at the forefront of strategic and industrial policymaking. The online event explored the latest policy and regulatory developments in the EU, US, and China regarding the rare earths value chain.
The goal was to assess recent trade measures, export controls and EU regulations affecting rare earths, and their implications for Europe’s supply security and circular economy. Three experts addressed these topics: Caroline Messecar of Fastmarkets, Nacef Tazi of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and Thomas Kruemmer of Ginger International Trade & Investment. Their insights highlighted global trade tensions, the strategic importance of rare earths, and EU policy responses.
Caroline Messecar (Fastmarkets)
Caroline Messecar, Senior Editor at Fastmarkets, began with a broad market overview. She noted that Fastmarkets is “a leading cross-commodity price reporting agency covering metals and mining… [and] voluntary carbon markets,” whose analysts help clients navigate “complex, volatile and often opaque” markets. Describing her talk as a “whirlwind tour of what just happened”, she focused on the whirlwind of events in the rare earth sector since late 2023. She briefly reviewed key developments – from China’s 2023 export ban on rare earth processing technology (extraction, separation, metalisation, magnet) to U.S. tariffs on permanent magnets – and emphasised that understanding these changes requires strategic context more than market logic.
In her analysis of recent events, Caroline highlighted several startling shifts. Most notably, she pointed out that China’s April 2025 controls included high‑performance magnets – a move that defied long-standing industry assumptions. As she explained, “for years, there was an urban legend in rare earths: they might restrict material, but they’ll never restrict the magnets. Clearly, this no longer exists”. This sudden inclusion of Dysprosium- and Terbium-containing NdFeB and SmCo magnets under export controls “was shocking for the market,” Caroline said, reflecting the higher stakes now. She also observed that market sentiment has turned very cautious: the current situation “is stuck between fear and denial,” with many buyers and sellers pausing amid uncertainty. Caroline’s presentation underscored that geopolitical policy moves (tariffs and export restrictions) have dramatically altered the rare earth magnet supply outlook, and that companies must watch policy developments as closely as price signals.
Nacef Tazi (European Commission – JRC)
Nacef Tazi of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) next reviewed the EU’s science-for-policy work on rare earths and magnets. He explained that the JRC, as the Commission’s in‑house research arm, helps design evidence-based policies for Europe’s raw materials strategy. As Nacef put it, “today more than ever we need sound evidence to support policy,” and the JRC co‑designs its research programs with policy directorates to anticipate material needs. He reminded the audience that JRC studies have long highlighted permanent magnets (and the rare earths they contain) as critical for Europe’s energy and digital transitions.
Nacef emphasized how rare earth elements underlie Europe’s strategic goals. In a striking formulation, he declared that “rare earths and the green or digital transitions are two sides of the same coin”. This reflects JRC analysis showing that while rare earths are a small share of raw materials by volume, they are indispensable for clean-tech and digital infrastructure. He further noted that permanent magnets dominate the value side of the rare earth chain: based on recent data, NdFeB and SmCo magnets account for over 95% of the total value of global rare earth oxide consumption. In practice, this means the JRC is focusing heavily on magnets in its policy support. Nacef outlined ongoing EU initiatives: for example, under the Critical Raw Materials Act the Commission is implementing rules to boost magnet recycling. He explained that future EU requirements will label entire products to track magnet content – covering everything from MRI machines and wind generators to household appliances. These steps, he argued, will improve recycling and supply-chain transparency.
Thomas Kruemmer (GITI Ginger Int’l Trade & Investment)
Thomas Kruemmer of Ginger International Trade & Investment (publisher of The Rare Earth Observer newsletter) offered a global trade and end‑use perspective. He began by noting that he has studied China’s rare earth export restrictions and licensing, but that he wanted to cut through the headlines with practical insights. “My motto,” he quipped, “is: seek truth from facts.” He warned that discussions often get trapped “in the hype over magnets,” so he shifted to illustrating how ubiquitous rare earths are in modern life. To make the point, Thomas walked through consumer and industrial examples: “If you look at our homes… everything in there that you can switch on and off, is somehow powered by rare earths,” he said. He added: “No car will run without rare earths. Be it a combustion engine or an electric vehicle”
Thomas Kruemmer explained that China has tightened export controls on rare‐earth materials. He noted that Beijing has classified seven rare‐earth elements as “dual‐use”, meaning any export (or import) of these elements or “all products where these elements are contained” now requires a Ministry of Commerce license. In practice this brings permanent magnets into the regime. Thomas explicitly rejected the idea that magnets were exempt, saying that high‐performance NdFeB magnets containing dysprosium or terbium “are collateral damage, because everything that contains any element on a dual‐use list is also licensable”. He described practical challenges: for example, China’s customs currently use a single tariff code for all NdFeB magnets and “does not distinguish between dysprosium‐ and terbium‐alloyed magnets and those without”, so authorities must create new sub‐codes to separate licensable from non‐licensable magnets, causing delays. On technology transfer, Thomas pointed to China’s Export Restricted Technology Catalogue (updated through 2023) as extremely broad. It covers 115 categories and splits items into “prohibited” or “restricted.” In his words, “everything under the sun for rare earth extraction, down to separation… is prohibited” from foreign transfer. Even items on the “restricted” list require companies to apply to the Commerce Ministry for a permit before any negotiations with foreign partners. To underscore China’s market dominance, Thomas gave figures: in 2024 global rare-earth oxide production was ~390,000 t, of which China produced ~369,000 t. Global permanent magnet output was ~330,000 t, with China’s share ~310,000 t. These data make clear that China already supplies the overwhelming majority of rare-earths and magnets even before any new export restrictions.
Highlights from the Q&A
The Q&A session brought out some of the roundtable’s most striking insights. It began with technical clarifications on EU policy implementation – Nacef, for instance, stressed that upcoming labeling rules under Article 28 of the Critical Raw Materials Act apply to entire products, not individual magnets, noting, “we are not labeling the tiny small magnets, we are labeling the products”. But the tone quickly shifted into deeper territory.
Asked how export controls might reshape global trade, Caroline responded firmly that geopolitics has overtaken free-market assumptions. “Every country pursues its own interests,” she said, adding that nations are now “leveraging their trade position to their advantage” through strategic pressure and trade policies. Moderator Nabeel pressed this point, suggesting Europe must rethink its economic policy model to remain competitive. Caroline agreed without hesitation: “You can’t [just] compete because those aren’t the rules of how this game works.”
One of the most insightful interventions came from Thomas, who challenged a widespread belief that China manipulates prices simply to undercut competitors. “It happens ever again that some silly junior rare earth miner says, ‘China is manipulating rare earth prices down in order to destroy us,’” he said, nodding in disagreement. “No. They understand this function of price to the downstream markets”. He explained that if prices rise too far – say, to $200 per kilogram for NdPr – then “the demand suddenly evaporates.”. This, he argued, dictates a more sophisticated strategy by Beijing than many Western observers assume. He went on to caution that Western analysts, also, often overlook the natural imbalance in rare earth production – where elements must be extracted together, even if demand for each varies. “You can’t cherry-pick; you must produce them all,” he said, emphasising that China has spent decades trying to manage this inherent imbalance with major R&D investments to increase use of low-value elements.
Caroline then provided concrete evidence of the immediate effects of recent tariffs and export controls: “Since the end of February… everything stops. There is nothing moving,” she said. The inability to stockpile custom magnets means that buyers are now “calling around asking, ‘Do you have anything?’… They just don’t have [any].” She also explained the bureaucratic bottlenecks: exporters must now send magnets to a government lab to prove they don’t contain restricted materials like dysprosium or terbium. “There’s only one government lab that does this!” she noted, highlighting how the sheer scale of requests, further delay supply. She explained that permanent magnets can’t easily be stockpiled or substituted on short notice, so companies downstream are scrambling with only a few months of stocks. Thomas added a cautionary perspective on prices and demand: rare-earth magnets (NdFeB) are indeed powerful, he said, but not irreplaceable. If disruptions force prices too high, “there was life before [the NdFeB magnet], and there will be life after. If it’s no longer cheap then demand will go down”. In other words, runaway prices would simply choke off demand and shift technology choices.
Nabeel asked whether China really urged South Korean firms to rein in exports (as some recent news pieces alleged); Thomas replied with diplomatic context but concluded that such direct intervention would be unprecedented. He called it “extremely bad style and very unusual for China”, stressing that even Beijing’s own foreign minister would not typically act so bluntly.
As the discussion closed, the panel returned to the broader implications of policy alignment. Nabeel remarked that without active engagement, Europe risks being left behind. Thomas echoed that sentiment indirectly, warning that efforts to create alternative supply chains must consider systemic risks. “Somebody will kick the carefully nursed balance out of balance again,” he said. “Because they [China] cannot control the quantities that are produced overseas. And then suddenly, all together, they are going down economically”.
In sum, the Q&A delivered both technical specificity and strategic candor. From the blunt realism of Caroline’s market analysis to Thomas’s cautionary take on resource politics and misjudged narratives, the session offered compelling reasons to watch the full recording – particularly for anyone interested in the collision of policy, markets, and critical material strategy.
The online event validated MAGELLAN’s focus on securing Europe’s permanent magnet supply chain as the linchpin of Europe’s rare earth strategy. In conclusion, the roundtable reinforced that rare earths are critical to Europe’s green transition, and that Europe must act proactively. By combining market insight (as Fastmarkets provides), research-backed policy (JRC’s work), and trade awareness (Ginger International’s analysis), Europe can advance toward a magnet value chain that is secure, resilient and circular – just as the MAGELLAN project intends. The event left participants with a clear message: achieving those goals will require close cooperation between industry, regulators and researchers to adapt to a world where rare earths have become levers of power and progress.
