Current status of magnet industry in China & ITS future

All materials. which can be magnetized in a magnetic field., are called magnetic materials. Depending on their coercivity or their ability to keep magnetization they are divided into two groups: soft and hard. Soft magnetic material loses its magnetization completely once it is moved from magnetic field. Hard magnetic material is the one, whose magnetization can be kept without magnetic field[1,2]. There are three commercial available magnets: Alnico, hard ferrite and rare earth magnets (SmCo, NdFeB etc.). Except fully dense sintered magnets, the bonded magnets are developed as well. Now the hard ferrite is majority of commercial available magnets, but rare earth magnets as the strongest magnet are developing rather fast both qualitatively and quantitatively. Today global magnet industry is in a cross road, to which direction should it go further? In order to give the right answer, one has to study the situation of global magnet industry more deeply and precisely. The structure of global magnet industries has been changed greatly since 1985. Manufacturing cost rise combined with sales reduction have made the magnet production in developed countries extremely difficult. Western magnet manufacturers have been forced to produce down-stream devices, such as magnetic assemblies with higher added value, while their magnet production has been short down or shifted to developing countries, including China. The current status and future trend of hard magnet industry is reviewed in present paper from point of view of macro economy based on the obtained statistical data.