The Commerce & Industry Ministry is facilitating discussions between industry bodies Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and their counterparts in China with the objective of facilitating rare earth supplies to India crucial for the auto industry, a senior government official has said.
This is happening parallelly with the Ministry of External Affair’s diplomatic efforts to procure supplies by urging Beijing to restore exports of rare earth related products. to India.
“We are engaged with both SIAM and ACMA. We are facilitating them to have discussions with their counterparts in China. And at the diplomatic level, the External Affairs Ministry and the Department of Commerce also have spoken to the Ambassador over there,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told journalists at an interaction on Monday.
In April this year, China placed export controls on seven rare earths and related products used in the defense, energy, and automotive sectors. While the measures were in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products, it affected manufacturers across the globe, particularly of automobiles, including in India.
Crucial mineral
Rare earth magnets are crucial to electric vehicle motors because of their strength, energy efficiency, and compact size, and China holds a near-monopoly on it.
The Indian auto industry has been seeking the government’s help in getting approvals from the Chinese government for importing rare earth magnets as their requests made through local vendors in China have reportedly not received a positive response.
Barthwal said that India’s diplomatic and commercial discussions with China on supply of rare earth related products should be productive. “We are making all the efforts to see that these essential items of imports can come to India. This diplomatic and commercial communication should yield a positive result,” Barthwal said.
As China’s export control regime may require licences, the government is facilitating Indian importers and auto industry players in whatever way possible, he added.