No project delays in Maharashtra due to rare earth shortage: govt

The Centre told Parliament there are no reports of cost escalations or project delays from industries in Maharashtra, including its key auto and electronics clusters

New Delhi: The recent imposition of export restrictions on key rare earth magnets has resulted in supply chain bottlenecks impacting the user industries, including auto and electronics sectors, but there are no reports about cost escalation or project delays from industries in Maharashtra, the Parliament was informed on Friday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jitin Prasada, said that however, “this Ministry has not received any specific reports regarding cost escalation or project delays due to the shortage of rare earth magnets from the companies in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad-Nashik-Pune auto belt and electronics clusters in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai”.

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On a question if an inter-ministerial task force or mission-mode programme has been set up to reduce India’s dependence on China for rare earth materials or whether the government is considering a Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to promote domestic production of rare earth magnets, the minister said that “presently, no such proposal is under consideration”.

The government is actively engaging with relevant stakeholders to alleviate the challenges arising from export restrictions on rare earth magnets imposed by certain countries, to mitigate disruptions in the supply chain and safeguard the interests of Indian importers.

According to the government, India has approximately 7.23 million tonnes (MT) of Rare Earth Elements Oxide (REO) contained in 13.15 MT monazite (a mineral of Thorium and Rare Earths) occurring in the coastal beach, teri and red sand and inland alluvium in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, while another 1.29 MT rare earths are situated in hard rocks in parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Moreover, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has augmented 482.6 MT of resources of REE ore at various cut-off grades in 34 exploration projects. The quantum of rare earth minerals exported during the last 10 years is 18 tonnes, while there have been no imports of rare earth minerals.

Critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, titanium, rare earth elements, etc., are demand-intensive due to their strategic uses in various sectors such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, and defence.