India is in touch with China to restore supply chain stability after Beijing imposed curbs on rare earth exports, impacting global trade.
The move has raised concern among global and domestic auto makers, which have already started exploring available options to minimise disruption as stocks of rare earth magnets with manufacturers and suppliers start to run out.
“We are in touch with the Chinese side... to bring predictability in supply chains,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
Maruti Suzuki on Thursday said it is exploring multiple solutions to ensure continuity in its manufacturing operations. The country’s largest car maker, which has revised near-term production targets for its electric vehicle e-Vitara, said there is a lot of uncertainty due to the situation, but so far, there is no impact on its manufacturing activities.
Available options
Icra on Thursday said that automobile and component manufacturers can explore a range of options to mitigate the risk.
This includes importing fully assembled motors from China, shipping the rotors, on which the rare earth magnets are mounted, to China for magnet assembly and then re-importing the assembled rotors.
Among the other options are substituting rare earth magnets with alternatively engineered materials and switching over to motors that rely on electromagnets or other inductive mechanisms.
“These workarounds, however, come with logistical, regulatory, and engineering complexities,” Icra said.