Q: Why does China dominate this space?
Because it made a strategic decision, decades ago, to do so. From the 1980s onward, China invested heavily in rare earth mining and, more importantly, in downstream processing and manufacturing. It was willing to absorb environmental damage, subsidise uneconomic ventures, and corner the global market by exporting at below cost. As other nations exited the business, China quietly built a vertically integrated industry—controlling everything from raw material extraction to high-performance magnets. Today, it processes over 85% of the world’s rare earths and manufactures nearly 90% of the world’s neodymium magnets. India, by contrast, has no commercial magnet manufacturing capacity of note.
