₹7,350 cr plan soon to boost production of rare-earth magnets

7-yr scheme to target production capacity of 6K tonnes/yr

- DEEPAK PATEL

The government is in final stages of launching a ₹7,350 crore scheme to spur domestic production of sintered rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) and cut import dependence, Business Standard has learnt.

This comes months after China imposed restrictions on exports of REPMs in April, squeezing supplies to India's automobile and electronics industries.

The initiative likely to be called the Scheme to Promote Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Manufacturing in India aims to establish a fully indigenous manufacturing ecosystem with an annual production capacity of up to 6,000 tonnes. The scheme is expected to run for seven years, according to official documents.

The goal is to build a homegrown value chain spanning the conversion of NdPr (neodymium-praseodymium) oxide into sintered NdFeB (neodymium-iron-boron) magnets. These are critical to sectors such as automobile, electronics, wind energy, and defence.

The REPM production includes mining, beneficiation, processing, extraction, refining to rare earth oxide, conversion to metal and alloy, and finally magnet manufacturing.

The proposed scheme will incentivise facilities capable of undertaking the final three stages: Converting rare earth oxide to metal, metal to alloy, and alloy to magnet. At present, India lacks the technology and infrastructure to manage these steps.

Manufacturing capacity and eligibility