China's rare-earth magnet exports to the US drop before Xi meets Trump
August shipments fell 21% to 512 tons, with critical minerals on the Thursday agenda.
China's exports of rare-earth magnets to the United States fell sharply in August, just days before President Xi Jinping is due to meet Donald Trump in Washington.
Chinese customs data released on Sunday show shipments dropped 21% from July to 512 tons. Bloomberg and Indian business wires say magnets and other rare-earth products became Beijing's strongest leverage in last year's trade talks. China put controls on magnet exports in April 2025, then eased them. Monthly US-bound volumes this year still average about 504 tons, below 621 tons in 2024 before the curbs.
Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet on Thursday. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that China hopes to offer more rare-earth export licences as a bargaining chip, without saying what Beijing wants in return. The broader US-China trade truce, which includes commitments on critical mineral flows, runs into November. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer gave Beijing a "passing grade" in May. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in July that China should fully meet its commitments. Bessent and China's Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in New York over the weekend ahead of the leaders' meeting.
Rare-earth magnets go into cars, consumer electronics, and weapons. China still dominates that supply chain, so a single month's drop matters less as a finished story than as a reminder of who can tighten the tap.
India reads this for two reasons. First, any US-China mineral deal reshapes global manufacturing costs. Second, New Delhi's own push to build non-Chinese rare-earth capacity sits in the same scramble. Calm that restores cheap Chinese supply can also slow the urgency in Washington to break the dependence, as Bloomberg Economics noted.
Thursday's Xi-Trump meeting is the near test. Watch whether more licences are promised in public, and whether September customs data reverse the August slide. The November truce deadline keeps pressure on both sides even if the photo-op looks friendly.