The global strong magnet annual production shows obvious regional agglomeration characteristics. The Asia-Pacific region, led by China, dominates the global strong magnet production, while the North American and European markets are accelerating their development driven by the energy transition and industrial upgrading. The differences in regional production patterns are mainly affected by factors such as resource endowment, industrial foundation, policy environment, and market demand. Understanding the regional distribution of strong magnet production is of great significance for grasping the global industrial layout and market competition pattern.

The Asia-Pacific region is the world's largest strong magnet production base, accounting for 68% of the global market share, and is expected to maintain its leading position in 2025. Among them, China is the core of the Asia-Pacific region's strong magnet production, contributing 75% of the Asia-Pacific region's production capacity. According to statistics, China's rare earth permanent magnet material output reached 210,000 tons in 2022, accounting for 88% of the global total output. The reason why China can become a global strong magnet production powerhouse is mainly due to its complete industrial chain, abundant rare earth resources, and cost advantages. China is rich in rare earth resources, especially light rare earth resources, which provide a solid raw material guarantee for the production of strong magnets. At the same time, China has formed a complete industrial chain covering rare earth mining, smelting and separation, magnetic material preparation, and component manufacturing. The industrial agglomeration effect is obvious. The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions gather more than 80% of China's strong magnet material production enterprises, and the annual production capacity of Ningbo, Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places exceeds 1.5 million tons in total.

In addition to China, Japan and South Korea in the Asia-Pacific region also occupy an important position in the global strong magnet production. Japan has obvious technical advantages in the field of high-end magnetic materials. The 52 MGOe energy product products developed by Sumitomo Special Metals monopolize 80% of the global high-end market. Japanese enterprises focus on the research and development and production of high-performance, high-precision strong magnets, which are mainly used in high-end fields such as precision instruments, aerospace, and new energy vehicles. South Korea's strong magnet industry is closely linked to its automobile and electronic industries, and has strong competitiveness in the field of small and medium-sized strong magnets for consumer electronics. However, due to factors such as limited resource endowment and high labor costs, the production scale of Japan and South Korea is relatively small compared with China, and their market share is mainly concentrated in the high-end segment.

The North American market is an important growth pole of global strong magnet production, with a market size expected to reach 32 billion yuan in 2025 and a compound annual growth rate of about 12%. The development of the North American strong magnet production is mainly driven by the strong demand in the new energy vehicle and wind power generation fields. The United States is the core market in North America. Under the promotion of policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the United States is accelerating the construction of a localized strong magnet industrial chain. It is stipulated that military equipment must use localized magnets from 2025, which has spawned a new production capacity demand of 24,000 tons. At the same time, Texas and California in the United States have formed a complete industry-university-research system, and the number of joint R&D projects between local universities and enterprises accounts for 47% of the country. Canada has unique advantages in the supply of rare earth raw materials, and its northern mining areas provide 30% of North America's rare earth resources. In addition, Mexico is becoming an important new production base by virtue of its cost advantages, and the investment in new production lines is expected to reach 4.5 billion yuan. However, the local production cost in North America is 35%-45% higher than that of Chinese products, which restricts the expansion of its production scale to a certain extent.

The European market pays more attention to environmental protection standards and product performance, with a market size of about 28 billion yuan in 2025. Germany, France and the United Kingdom form the three major centers in the region, accounting for 68% of the regional market share together. The green energy policy implemented by the European Union has directly driven the demand for strong magnetic materials for wind power generation, and the annual growth rate of imports of related products has reached 23%. Europe has a strong industrial foundation in the field of industrial automation and medical equipment, and the demand for high-performance strong magnets in these fields is also growing steadily. In terms of production layout, affected by the restructuring of the global supply chain, the proportion of localized production in Europe has increased from 15% in 2020 to 22% in 2022. Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary are undertaking industrial transfer due to their low production costs, and the number of new factories will increase significantly in 2024. In addition, the European Union's Critical Raw Materials Act has included NdFeB in the list of strategic materials, requiring that the local processing ratio should not be less than 30% by 2030, which will further promote the development of the localized strong magnet industry in Europe.

It should also be noted that Southeast Asia has become a new hub for strong magnet processing transfer in recent years. Driven by factors such as trade barriers and cost advantages, Chinese enterprises have increased their investment in Southeast Asia. In 2025, the investment of Chinese enterprises in Vietnam and Thailand increased by 40% year-on-year, accounting for 70% of overseas investment. Some enterprises adopt the model of "semi-finished product export + overseas deep processing" to avoid the 15% tariff cost imposed by Europe and the United States on Chinese finished permanent magnets. The rise of Southeast Asia's strong magnet processing industry will have a certain impact on the global production pattern, but due to the lack of a complete industrial chain and core technology, its production is mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of processing, and it still relies on imports of raw materials and core components.