Our Bureau
New Delhi
China’s decision to put export restrictions on the rare earth magnets out of nowhere had shaken up the automobile manufacturing industry in India. According to the company executives if this continued the automobile manufacturing might have completely come to halt within a few days and the car production might have ceased fully.
After the exports were restricted the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) asked the government to intervene in the matter. They asked Beijing to ease restrictions and warn them of the looming crisis in the world’s third-largest car market. A meeting that included executives from companies like Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Motors was held on May 19 by SIAM. Through an internal document SIAM stated, “Starting from the end of May or early June, auto industry production is expected to come to a grinding halt.”
However, it was reported that after the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had issued around 30 certificates which had now led to China resuming the imports of these permanent magnets. These certificates that were issued stated that the earth magnets won’t be used in the production of defence applications and will not be reimported to the United States.
These earth magnets are very crucial components that are used in electric vehicles. Not only that they are also a very important part in other car parts like the power windows and the audio systems. More than 90% of the production of these magnets globally is controlled by China and thus the restrictions imposed by them shook everyone.
China imposed these restrictions as a retaliation to the tariffs imposed by the President of the US, Donald Trump, stating that companies will require import permits from Chinese authorities.
