Indian Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) Scheme and associated concern.

Industry leaders have called for careful selection of companies under India’s new national scheme for manufacturing sintered rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs), saying only serious and technologically capable firms should be allowed to participate. They argue that the sector is too strategic to risk the entry of inexperienced players drawn only by subsidies.

China currently accounts for nearly 90% of the world’s REPM production and has restricted exports in recent months, affecting Indian automakers and industrial users. Singh said India must act quickly to protect its domestic supply chain once new magnet capacity is built. He suggested imposing safeguard or anti-dumping duties on imported REPMs to prevent the fresh industry from being damaged at birth.Vivek Vikram Singh, managing director and chief executive officer of auto component manufacturer Sona Comstar, said the government must take a strict approach to safeguard India’s ambitions in the high-technology magnet industry. Speaking about the recently approved Rs 7,280 crore scheme, he said REPM manufacturing is complex, capital-intensive, and essential for India’s defence, electric vehicle, aerospace, and renewable energy sectors.“REPMs are critical for the future. You need the right technology and experience. It is not child’s play,” he said, noting that only a few Indian companies currently possess the full capability to convert rare earth materials into finished magnets of global standards.

Other Challenges to India’s REMP Scheme

Even with fertile reserves and an incentive scheme, India still faces big obstacles:

• China’s dominance is not only in mining, but especially in refining and processing — the most technically demanding stages. Catching up requires capital, technology, and skilled manpower.
• China has recently imposed export restrictions on rare-earth materials and processing technologies, making access to equipment and know-how more difficult globally.
• Setting up integrated REE refining + magnet-making plants is capital-intensive, environmentally sensitive, and technologically challenging. That means long gestation periods and careful regulation. guards to ensure raw materials, energy, water and environmental compliance.

Technological Challenges for India

Launching the scheme alone cannot guarantee whether India will succeed. Rare-earth magnet production involves sophisticated technological processes. Fortunately, a handful of Indian firms are already manufacturing rare-earth permanent magnets.

Rare Earth Magnet involve following Process:

A smelting / alloy-melting furnace (vacuum induction furnace or arc-melting furnace) to melt rare-earth metals (neodymium, praseodymium, etc.) with iron and boron to form the base alloy.

Strip-casting equipment — after melting, the alloy is cooled quickly (strip casting or rapid-quench) to form ingots or ribbons.

Hydrogen-decrepitation (HD) furnace / reactor — a unit where the alloy ingots are broken down by hydrogen to make them brittle and easier to mill.

Jet-milling (or ball-milling) machines — used to grind the decrepitated alloy into ultra-fine magnetic powder (particles often of 3–4 µm) under inert or controlled atmosphere to prevent oxidation.

Magnetic-alignment + Pressing machines — after milling, the powder is placed in a mold and subjected to a strong magnetic field so particles align, then pressed (axial or isostatic pressing) to form a “green compact.

Sintering furnace (vacuum or inert-gas furnace) — the compact is heated (often 1000–1100 °C) so powder particles fuse together and densify, forming a solid magnet.

Heat-treatment and controlled quenching equipment — after sintering, rapid cooling (quenching) helps lock in magnetic properties by preventing undesirable crystallographic phases.

Machining and finishing tools — because sintered magnets are very hard and brittle, precise cutting/grinding (often diamond-wheel grinding or advanced grinding / wire-cut / EDM / laser / ultrasonic machining) is used to shape them.

Surface coating / plating units — after shaping, magnets need protective coatings (e.g. nickel-copper-nickel, epoxy, etc.) to resist corrosion. j

Magnetizing equipment (magnetizers) — final step: applying a strong magnetic field (via electromagnetic coils / solenoids) to permanently magnetize the finished pieces.

Which Part of Supply Chain of Rare Earth magenet India is Targetting

Indian REPM, meant for whole Supply Chain,ensuring the complete country’s independance and autonomy. Rare Earth Mineral will be mined locally , Process and converting to finish product.

Rare Earth Magnet Supply Chain vs Semi Conductor manufacturing

Semi Conductor is both capital and technoligical intensive work and need decadedes of Research and Development,even China has failed to make Chips making machinery. India is a the bottom of Chip making supply chain, even Tata Semi conductor Plant will operate at 2013 technologyy , with chips ranging from 90NM to 28 NM. America and South Korea already are producing 2NM Chips. But Rare earth magnet supply chain is capital intensive and not that technological intensive, India can easily dominate this area of technology.