Bids open for India rare earth magnet scheme

New Delhi: The heavy industries ministry has opened financial bids under the scheme to set up rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing facilities in the country. Officials said state-owned Coal India has sought a nil per kg incentive.Hyderabad-based IRP Infratech consortium with US-headquartered BaRupOn has also sought zero per kilogram production-linked incentive under the central scheme. Prozeal, ReNew, and Midwest have sought per-kg incentives ranging from ₹243 to ₹505 under the scheme.Also read | India ups the energy stakes with new type of shared deepwater playIndia is the world's third-largest rare earth resource-rich country. Calls to harness them intensified after China curbed exports of REPM in April 2025, threatening supply chains across industries.A ₹7,280 crore scheme to promote manufacturing of sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) was approved in November last year. The ministry of heavy industries (MHI) is offering a ₹150 crore capital subsidy and a per kg sale incentive of up to ₹2,150 under the scheme aimed to reduce import dependence.Responding to queries from ET, Midwest Energy said it has bid ₹505.05 per kg with a cap of 1200 tonnes per annum (TPA) plus ₹150 crore as capital expenditure incentive. "Midwest is an early entrant with a phase-I plant with a capacity of 500 TPA, which is under commissioning with planned expansion to cover 1200 TPA to be completed by August, 2027," the company said.135668904Prozeal Green Energy bid ₹243 per kg, while ReNew Power bid ₹449 per kg.In August, MHI said it had received 20 bids through a global tender. Of these, 16 qualified after the technical round.Seven-Year SchemeThe scheme envisions allocating the total capacity to five beneficiaries. Each will be allotted up to 1,200 MTPA of capacity.Also read | Under attack, banks bolster cyber coversThe scheme will run for seven years from the date of award, including a two-year gestation period for setting up an integrated manufacturing facility, and five years for incentive disbursement on the sale of REPM. These magnets are among the most powerful in the world and are widely used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, high-end electronics, aerospace and defence systems.