South Korean company JS Link announced that its US subsidiary, JS Link America, will invest US$223M in a new rare-earth permanent magnet production facility located in Columbus, Georgia, USA.

The new facility is targeted to produce 3ktpy of rare-earth permanent magnets, with commercial production scheduled for late 2027. The US facility is the third magnet production facility with which JS Link and its subsidiaries have become involved. In 2025, JS Link commissioned pilot-scale production at a 1ktpy NdFeB facility in Yesan, South Korea. It also signed an agreement with Lynas Rare Earths to develop a 3ktpy NdFeB facility in Kuantan, Malaysia.

The development of JS Link’s three facilities over the coming years has the potential to generate 7ktpy of NdFeB manufacturing capacity, which would require 2.6ktpy of rare-earth oxide (REO) feedstock.

The development of rare-earth permanent magnet production outside the Chinese market has accelerated in recent years, given the increasing regionalisation of supply chains in an effort to reduce supply chain risk and protect against geopolitical disruption. In 2025, more than 20 magnet production facilities are in development outside the Chinese domestic market, targeting a total NdFeB magnet alloy capacity approaching 60ktpy.

This would add to an existing NdFeB capacity of 23.75ktpy, largely in Japan, bringing non-Chinese capacity to more than 81ktpy if all facilities are ramped up successfully. The grades of magnet materials that will be produced and the production processes used by manufacturers remain unclear; however, capacity outside China could support REO demand amounting to more than 30ktpy.

Although China will remain the largest magnet producer by volume over the coming decade, with China’s ten largest domestic NdFeB magnet producers scheduled to commission a further 75ktpy of capacity by 2030, new production capabilities in the USA, Europe, Asia, and South America are expected to erode China’s market share in the period leading up to 2030.