business
China Bars Exports to Ten U.S. Firms; U.S. Commits $725 Million to Domestic Rare-Earth Projects
Beijing barred dual-use exports to MP Materials, USA Rare Earth and eight other companies on June 22. The same day it blocked 46 American defense contractors from Chinese government procurement.
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China’s Ministry of Commerce placed ten American companies on its export control list on June 22, barring Chinese dual-use exports to the firms and to any third-country entity that transfers Chinese-origin goods on their behalf. The list includes MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, drone makers and aerospace contractors.
Four days earlier the Pentagon had conditionally committed $725 million in senior-secured debt to Energy Fuels.
On the same day as the export controls, China’s Ministry of Finance barred 46 American companies from government procurement in China, among them Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing Defense and General Dynamics. MP Materials operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, the only commercially operating rare-earth mine in the United States.
The Pentagon took roughly 15 percent equity in the company in 2025 and committed to a $110-per-kilogram price floor for neodymium-praseodymium.
The United States and China have maintained a partial suspension of China’s strictest rare-earth export controls through November 10, 2026. Even under the truce, exports of yttrium, dysprosium and terbium to the United States remain about 50 percent below pre-restriction levels. China controls approximately 60 percent of global rare-earth mining and more than 85 percent of processing capacity.
Existing and planned non-Chinese capacity is projected to meet only about a quarter of global refining needs and less than a fifth of magnet demand by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. A single F-35 fighter jet contains over 900 pounds of rare-earth materials, including roughly 50 pounds of samarium-cobalt magnets. China produces the entire global supply of samarium.
A Virginia-class submarine requires about 9,200 pounds of rare earths; an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer needs 5,200 pounds. The Pentagon’s magnet qualification program for F-35 applications targets mid-2027 certification, leaving a seven-month window after the November 10 suspension expires during which domestic alternatives remain uncertified.
