Highlights

• China temporarily suspends export controls on critical minerals for one year (Nov 2025-Nov 2026).
  • Included minerals: rare earths, lithium battery materials, gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten, and graphite.
• The suspension follows a Trump-Xi meeting and is framed as a tactical pause rather than a permanent policy shift.
• Gives manufacturers a temporary reprieve while Beijing preserves long-term leverage.
• Despite market relief, the structural dependency remains unchanged.
  • China controls 90% of rare-earth processing.
• Provides the West one year to accelerate supply chain diversification projects.

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In a move with sweeping implications for global supply chains, China’s Ministry of Commerce and Customs announced the temporary suspension of export controls on a wide range of critical minerals — including rare earth elements and lithium battery materials — for one year beginning November 7, 2025 through November 10, 2026.

The decision, published on the official Asian Metal wire service, follows last month’s meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea, where both sides signaled a tentative thaw in trade relations. It aligns closely with reports from UPI that Beijing will also suspend its 2024 export ban on five other metals —gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten, and graphite — materials that underpin advanced semiconductors, defense systems, and lithium-ion batteries.

The One-Year Window

The suspension effectively grants manufacturers a temporary reprieve from one of the most destabilizing restrictions in the global materials market. For the next twelve months, shipments of medium and heavy rare earths, super-hard materials, and graphite-based anodes can resume under a “general license” regime. China has not formally described these as permanent changes, and officials framed the action as a “temporary adjustment” pending review in late 2026.

The Ministry’s statement made no reference to the wider U.S.–China trade framework highlighted by Washington, which characterized the deal as part of a broader economic stabilization package. According to the White House fact sheet, Beijing’s relaxation of mineral export controls is paired with renewed purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and commitments to stem exports of fentanyl precursors — underscoring the transactional nature of the détente.

Context: A Delicate Balance

China dominates nearly every stage of the critical-materials value chain, controlling over 90 percent of rare-earth processing and the overwhelming share of graphite anode and gallium refining capacity. The original export bans, introduced in 2024 and expanded in 2025 to cover superhard alloys, lithium compounds, and REE technologies, rattled manufacturers from Seoul to Stuttgart.

By pausing those measures, Beijing appears to be buying time — preserving leverage while easing immediate market pressure. Analysts note the suspension may calm prices for neodymium, dysprosium, and graphite anodes, but warn that structural dependency remains unchanged: no alternative refining ecosystem yet matches China’s scale.

Market and Policy Implications

For the United States, Japan, and the European Union, the reprieve allows supply-chain planners to accelerate diversification projects such as Serra Verde in Brazil, Lynas’s Texas refinery, and MP Materials’ magnet plant. Yet it also underscores a reality the West cannot ignore — that the tempo of global decoupling is still largely set in Beijing.

Investors and policymakers should view the 2025–2026 suspension not as a surrender of control, but as a strategic reset. With gallium, germanium, tungsten, and key rare earths once again flowing, the world’s clean-tech and defense manufacturers have one year to strengthen non-Chinese alternatives before the next round of geopolitics reshapes the rules once more.

Summary

China’s one-year suspension of export controls on rare earths, lithium battery materials, and semiconductor metals marks a tactical pause in a multi-year resource power struggle. The move should offer some ease to global pressure but leaves structural dependencies intact — a reminder that the critical-minerals chessboard remains firmly centered in Beijing’s hands.

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