Status: 5 October 2026. On 28 September 2026 China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that the suspension of its October 2025 rare earth export controls package has been extended — from 10 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. The April 2025 licensing regime was not part of that suspension and remains in force. This page explains which measure is which; we will update it if the position changes.
Within hours of the announcement, two opposite readings were circulating among magnet buyers: that China had relaxed its rare earth export controls, and that absolutely nothing had changed. Neither summary is quite right, and the gap between them matters to anyone placing an NdFeB order — because almost every version we have seen conflates two separate Chinese measures that sit on completely different tracks.
This article separates them. It is deliberately short on policy commentary and long on dates, because the practical question for a buyer is narrow: does this change what my order needs?
What Was Actually Extended
One number answers most of the confusion: 61 days. The expiry date moved from 10 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
The measure being extended is the package of six announcements published on 9 October 2025, which introduced several new mechanisms for rare earths:
- expanded licensing requirements covering the full range of medium and heavy rare earths;
- controls on magnet-manufacturing technology and related equipment;
- an extraterritorial rule — often cited as the “0.1% value-tracing rule” — under which products manufactured outside China would require a Chinese export licence if they contained Chinese-origin controlled rare earth above a defined value share.
That package was suspended before it ever took operational effect. A joint announcement of 7 November 2025 suspended it for one year, with the suspension set to lapse on 10 November 2026. The arrangement was reciprocal: it accompanied a matching US suspension of its own affiliates rule. The 28 September 2026 announcement simply rolled the suspension forward by another 61 days.
| Date | What happened | Status today |
|---|---|---|
| 4 April 2025 | Announcement No. 18 takes effect: export control on samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium | In force — never suspended |
| 9 October 2025 | Six announcements expand the regime: broader licensing, technology controls, extraterritorial value-tracing | Issued but never operational |
| 7 November 2025 | Joint announcement suspends the October package for one year (to 10 November 2026) | Superseded by the extension |
| 28 September 2026 | Ministry of Commerce announces the suspension is extended to 10 January 2027 | Current position |
| 10 January 2027 | Next expiry date for the suspension | Pending further talks |
The Two Tracks of China’s Rare Earth Export Controls
The single most useful thing a buyer can take from this news is the track structure. There are two instruments, and only one of them has ever been paused.
| Track A — the October 2025 package | Track B — Announcement No. 18 (April 2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Core content | Extraterritorial value-tracing, expanded licensing mechanisms, magnet-manufacturing technology controls | Licensing regime for seven medium and heavy rare earth elements |
| Element scope | Full medium/heavy rare earth range and related technology | Samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium |
| Operational status | Suspended since 7 November 2025; now suspended to 10 January 2027 | In force continuously since 4 April 2025 — roughly 18 months |
| What it means for a magnet order | Adds a potential licence requirement for goods made outside China that contain Chinese-origin rare earth | Determines whether your NdFeB magnets need a Chinese export licence — based on Dy/Tb content |
| Effect of the September 2026 extension | The suspension got 61 days longer | None |
If you only remember one line from this article, make it this one: the extension applies to the pause, not to the control. Nothing in Track B has been relaxed, shortened or exempted. For a typical NdFeB order, Track B is the one that decides your paperwork.
What This Changes for Magnet Buyers: Nothing
For NdFeB magnets containing dysprosium or terbium, the licensing position on 5 October 2026 is what it was in September, and what it was in April:
- A licence is still required for controlled compositions.
- In our 2025–2026 experience, licence review still takes about four months.
- The classification question is still answered by a composition test report, not by a grade name or a supplier’s assurance.
- The only schedule intervention that reliably shortens the critical path is designing heavy rare earths out of the part — which is why our HRE-free grade guidance exists.
In short: if you were planning on the assumption that licensing applies to your part, keep planning on that assumption. The two companion articles cover the mechanics — how the classification works and how to schedule around the review window.
If a supplier or forwarder has told you that the September announcement “opens up” controlled magnet shipments, treat that as a summary of a headline rather than of the measure. Ask them a direct question instead: under which announcement is my part no longer controlled? There is no answer, because there is no such change.
Two Different 0.1% Figures — Do Not Mix Them Up
Both tracks involve a 0.1%, and they are not the same thing. This is the second-most common source of confusion we see in incoming enquiries.
| The 0.1% figure | Where it comes from | What it measures | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dy/Tb content benchmark | Enforcement and laboratory practice under Announcement No. 18 | The share of dysprosium/terbium in the magnet material, used in practice as a screening benchmark | Active — and note it is an enforcement benchmark, not a published threshold |
| Value-tracing threshold | The October 2025 package (extraterritorial rule) | The share of Chinese-origin controlled rare earth by value in a finished product made abroad | Suspended — part of the paused package |
The first one decides whether your magnets need a licence. The second one is about goods made outside China. Since the second is suspended, it plays no role in an ordinary export today — but the first governs business as usual, and it has not moved.
10 January 2027: What That Date Is, and What It Is Not
It is a deadline for a negotiation, not for your order. The suspension can lapse on 10 January 2027, at which point the October 2025 package — including the extraterritorial rule — could be re-activated. That possibility is exactly why the measure is described as suspended rather than withdrawn: the legal instruments remain in place, waiting.
It is not a reason to slow down a procurement decision. Nothing about the date makes a controlled part easier to ship before or after it.
It is worth knowing if you plan on long horizons. Some industry reporting also points to US-side targets clustering around January 2027. We do not trade on forecasts and we are not going to forecast policy here. What we can say is that a January deadline in the negotiation calendar is not a licence, and should not be written into a project plan as if it were.
The practical reading: treat Track B as permanent, and Track A as a variable you do not control. Projects that survive both assumptions are projects that will not be re-planned in February.
How to Plan Procurement Around an Uncertain Deadline
Four things we would do in your position, and that we do ourselves:
1. Classify by test, not by news. Get the composition report first. Whether the news says “relaxed” or “unchanged” has no bearing on what your magnet actually contains.
2. Keep the four-month window in the plan. If your part contains Dy or Tb, the licence is the long pole regardless of the announcement calendar. Build the schedule around it rather than around headlines.
3. Separate thermally-driven Dy/Tb use from habit. A large share of the dysprosium we see specified is there for temperature, not for field strength — and that is exactly what HRE-free grain-boundary-diffusion grades are designed to replace. Our grades chart shows which temperature classes normally carry heavy rare earth additions (UH and above) and which generally do not (SH and below).
4. Re-check before you freeze the design, not after. Ask two questions early: what is the Dy/Tb content of this grade as you produce it, and does this part trigger licensing? The answers are what a schedule is built on. If you are assembling the wider document set, our import compliance checklist lists what your supplier should be able to hand over.
FAQ
Does the September 2026 extension mean China’s rare earth export controls have been relaxed? No. It extends a suspension of one package — the October 2025 measures. The April 2025 licensing regime under Announcement No. 18 was never suspended and remains in force. Two different instruments, two different statuses.
Is Announcement No. 18 also delayed now? No. It has been in force continuously since 4 April 2025 — roughly 18 months as of this update — and has never been part of any suspension package.
So do my NdFeB magnets still need an export licence? That depends only on composition. If your material contains dysprosium or terbium above the level customs practice treats as controlled, yes. If it is genuinely free of them, no. The September announcement does not change either answer. See the classification test.
How long does licensing take now? About four months in our 2025–2026 experience — unchanged by the extension.
What happens after 10 January 2027? If no further agreement is reached, the October 2025 package can be re-activated, including the extraterritorial value-tracing rule. If a further extension or agreement is reached, it stays paused. We do not forecast which; we plan so that either outcome is survivable.
Were the October 2025 measures ever actually applied? No. They were issued on 9 October 2025 and suspended on 7 November 2025 before taking operational effect, and have remained suspended since.
Key Takeaways for Buyers
- The suspension of the October 2025 package was extended by 61 days, from 10 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
- Announcement No. 18 (April 2025) is unaffected — it remains in force and governs licensing for magnets containing Dy or Tb.
- Magnet licensing therefore continues unchanged: composition-based, with about four months of review.
- Suspended is not withdrawn. The October package remains on the books and can be re-activated after 10 January 2027.
- Plan on the assumption that nothing changed, because nothing did. If that assumption breaks your schedule, the fix is a design decision — heavy-rare-earth-free grades — not a calendar bet.
Last updated: 5 October 2026. We review this page whenever the suspension position changes. For the underlying regime — what Announcement No. 18 covers and how classification is decided — start with our NdFeB export controls explainer. For European supply-chain context, see what the new capacity outside China does and does not change.
If you want a specific part assessed against the current rules, send us the drawing and the composition data — that is a conversation we have several times a week, and it takes a day rather than a quarter. Start at our NdFeB magnets page or contact us directly.
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