Most articles about China’s magnet export controls end the same way: “licensing timelines vary, so plan accordingly.” That is true, and it is useless. If you are the person who has to commit to an installation date, “plan accordingly” is not a plan.
So here is ours. We have run controlled NdFeB orders through China’s export licensing system since the regime took effect on 4 April 2025. On the basis of that experience, the licence itself takes about four months — and the practical consequence is that a controlled order needs to be launched five to six months before the magnets are needed. This article is the schedule we actually plan against, stage by stage, including where the time genuinely gets lost.
If you are not yet sure whether your part is controlled at all, settle that first — our companion article Does Your Neodymium Magnet Need an Export License? The Dy/Tb Threshold Explained walks through the classification test, because that question decides which of two very different timelines you are on.
The Two Timelines You Might Be On
| Route | Total time from purchase order to shipment | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Uncontrolled (no Dy, no Tb — verified by test) | Standard production lead time | Manufacturing only |
| Controlled (Dy or Tb present) | Standard production lead time plus about four months of licensing | Government review, running alongside production |
Everything below concerns the second row. The first row is why our HRE-free grade guidance exists: designing heavy rare earths out of the part is, in many applications, the single most effective schedule intervention available.
The Five Stages of a Controlled Order
| # | Stage | Typical duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Classification and testing | 1–2 weeks | Element analysis at an accredited laboratory; establishes whether you are on the controlled route at all |
| 2 | Application preparation | 1–2 weeks | Technical description, end-use and end-user documentation, contract and specification pack |
| 3 | Licence review and issuance | about 4 months | Our 2025–2026 experience. This is the long pole, and it is not compressible by the supplier |
| 4 | Production | 3 to 6 weeks for standard sintered parts | Material preparation, pressing, sintering, machining, coating, magnetizing |
| 5 | Pre-shipment | about 1 week | Magnetic flux testing and shielding for air freight (UN2807), export declaration, booking |
The first thing to notice is that stage 3 is longer than every other stage combined, several times over. The second thing to notice is that stages 1, 2 and 3 are mostly paperwork and waiting, while stage 4 is work — which means the two can be overlapped, and that overlap is where the whole schedule is won or lost.
The Schedule We Actually Plan Against
Weeks counted from the day you place the purchase order. L = licensing track, P = production track.
| Week | Licensing track (L) | Production track (P) |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Confirm composition by test; agree which catalogue code applies | Material and grade locked; drawings frozen |
| 2–4 | Assemble application pack: technical description, end use, end user, contract | Raw material and magnetizing tooling prepared |
| 4 | Application filed | — |
| 5–20 | Review period (about four months) | Production completed and goods held in bonded/factory storage |
| 20–21 | Licence issued | — |
| 21–22 | Shipment documents assembled; flux test, shielding, re-test after packing | Goods packed and labelled |
| 22 | Export declaration filed under the licence | — |
| 22–23 | Goods shipped | — |
Two caveats, stated plainly because they matter:
Production during the licence review is a commercial decision, not an automatic right. Whether your supplier is willing to build before the licence is issued depends on the contract, the deposit and the risk they are prepared to carry. Get a written answer to this question at quotation stage — it is the difference between a four-month wait and a six-month one. If they will not build ahead, add stage 4 in full to the far side of stage 3.
Every duration in the table above is a planning figure, not a commitment. The four-month licence period is our own experience. The rest are normal ranges. The only durations that bind are the ones written into your contract.
Back-Planning Table: When to Place the Order
Read this as: to have controlled magnets on site in this month, the purchase order must be placed by this month. It assumes a 22–23 week controlled schedule plus shipping and customs at destination.
| Magnets needed on site | Place purchase order by |
|---|---|
| January | Early July (previous year) |
| March | Early September (previous year) |
| June | Early December (previous year) |
| September | Early March |
| December | Early June |
If your need date is fixed by an installation window, a project milestone or a customer contract, this table is the single most useful thing in this article. Most of the pain we see in controlled orders comes from a purchase order placed against a production lead time while the order is actually on a licensing timeline.
Where the Time Actually Gets Lost
In our experience, delays cluster into five causes — and four of them are avoidable.
1. Classification discovered late. The order is quoted as uncontrolled, the composition test two weeks later shows dysprosium, and the whole schedule restarts on the four-month track. Fix: test before quoting, not before shipping.
2. An incomplete application pack. The technical description does not match the invoice; the stated end use is too generic; the end-user documentation is missing a signature. Each round of clarification costs days. Fix: assemble the pack to the same standard as a customs declaration, first time.
3. Production started before the licence — without agreement. This looks like time saved until the licence review asks a question about the specification and the goods on the floor no longer match the application. Fix: freeze the specification before filing and do not change it.
4. Cargo held at the port on a separate inspection. Licensing and inspection are independent controls. Chinese customs screens magnet shipments, including with handheld XRF analysers at the port, and retains post-release audit authority for three years. A hold for verification adds days even on a fully licensed consignment. Fix: ship the lot-specific composition report with the goods, and describe the product specifically on the declaration.
5. Magnets rejected by the airline. Flux limits under UN2807 are measured at 2.1 m and 4.6 m from the package, and repacking requires re-testing. Fix: flux-test after final packing, not before.
Levers That Shorten the Schedule
Only three things reliably move a controlled order earlier. Everything else is noise.
Design the heavy rare earths out. If the application can work at 120–150 °C rather than 180 °C, an HRE-free grade removes stage 3 entirely — four months, at a stroke. This is a genuine engineering decision rather than a paperwork trick, with real trade-offs in temperature headroom and magnet volume; we set them out in HRE-Free NdFeB: How Dysprosium-Free Grades Avoid License Delays.
Split the build. Where the design permits, run the uncontrolled parts of an assembly on standard lead time and reserve the controlled parts for the licensed shipment. Note the trap: mixed consignments declared under one generic description are a leading cause of penalty decisions — declare separately and specifically.
Fix the documentation before it is requested. The application pack, the composition report and the technical description drawn up correctly the first time is the cheapest week you will ever save.
What Cannot Be Accelerated
Be sceptical of anyone who offers to speed up the review itself. The licence review period is government time. A supplier who promises a controlled order on a normal production lead time is either not planning to license it, or does not know what they are doing. Both are expensive to discover at the port.
A Worked Example
A European drive manufacturer needs 2,000 sintered NdFeB arc segments at a grade that requires dysprosium, for a commissioning date in the second week of March.
- Early September: composition confirmed by test, catalogue classification agreed, application pack assembled. Purchase order placed.
- Mid-September: application filed. Production authorised to run in parallel against a frozen specification.
- September to January: review period. Goods produced and held.
- Late January: licence issued.
- Early February: flux test, shielding, packing, export declaration. Shipped.
- Late February to early March: sea freight and destination clearance.
Total: about six months from purchase order to commissioning, of which roughly four months is the licence. Had the order been placed in November — against the production lead time, on the assumption that licensing was a formality — the commissioning date would have been missed by a quarter. This is the mistake this article exists to prevent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can production really run while the licence application is under review? Often yes, if the specification is frozen and your supplier agrees in writing to carry the risk. Ask this at quotation stage, because the answer changes the total schedule by a month or more.
How long is the licence itself? In our experience through 2025 and 2026, about four months. Treat it as the planning figure and confirm the position when you order.
Is the four months the same for every country of destination? Requirements and review times vary by destination, end use and end user. The schedule above is our planning baseline; your exact position depends on your market and application.
What if our need date cannot move? Then either the schedule must start five to six months earlier, or the design must change. There is no third option: an uncontrolled design shipping on a normal lead time is faster than a controlled design with a perfect licence application.
Does an HRE-free order also need testing and documentation? Yes — and it should have it. An uncontrolled shipment without a composition report is still exposed to port inspection and post-release audit. The documentation is what makes the classification defensible, not the absence of a licence.
Do we need to do anything as the buyer? Yes. Your end-use and end-user information is part of the application, and it needs to be accurate and consistent with the commercial documents. Most of the avoidable delays we see involve the buyer’s side of this pack, not the supplier’s.
Key Takeaways
- Budget about four months for licensing, and launch controlled orders five to six months ahead of the need date.
- The licence is the long pole — longer than production, coating, magnetizing and freight combined.
- Overlap the tracks: classification and application preparation in parallel with material and tooling, with a frozen specification.
- Confirm in writing whether your supplier will build during the review. The answer moves your schedule by a month or more.
- Test before quoting. A late classification discovery resets the clock on the entire order.
- The cheapest acceleration is design. Removing dysprosium or terbium from the part deletes the four-month stage outright.
Sources
- MOFCOM & GACC Announcement No. 18 of 2025 (export control on samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium items), effective 4 April 2025
- MOFCOM FAQ documents on the scope of rare earth export controls
- China customs enforcement decisions involving Dy/Tb classification of NdFeB shipments (2026)
- Customs Audit Regulations of the PRC (post-release audit authority: three years)
- Trade press reporting on customs deployment of handheld XRF analysers for dual-use item screening at ports, 2026
- UN2807 / IATA rules on the transport of magnetized material (flux limits at 2.1 m and 4.6 m; shielding and re-testing after repacking)
- HS Hardwares licensing experience, 2025–2026 (the four-month licence period and the parallel-production schedule described in this article)
Last updated: September 2026. Review times, documentation requirements and inspection practice are dynamic — verify the current position before committing to a delivery date. This article is a practical procurement aid, not legal advice.
Planning a controlled order, or trying to avoid one? We produce both licensed heavy-rare-earth grades and HRE-free sintered NdFeB, and we will tell you honestly which one your application needs. Send us the drawing, the operating temperature and your need-by date. We will tell you which route your part is on, what the schedule looks like on each, and where the design can be adjusted to remove the licence entirely. Email info@hshardwares.com, phone or WhatsApp +86-13666656994, or request a quote.
Our free Magnet Export Compliance Checklist (PDF) includes the timeline table and the document list in a form you can forward to your own compliance team.
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