CASE STUDY · EXPORT COMPLIANCE
Zero Surprise Delays
MOFCOM export licenses take roughly 45 working days — and there's no way to rush them. So we start the process the moment you confirm an order, running it in parallel with production. By the time your magnets are packed, the license is already approved.
0
Shipment Delays
100%
Approval Rate
Day 1
We Start Filing
THE PROBLEM
A 45-Day Bottleneck Nobody Told Them About
A German Tier-1 automotive supplier had been ordering 48H-grade sintered NdFeB arc segments from a Chinese trading company for years — no issues. Then China's new rare earth export controls kicked in, and their next shipment was held at Customs.
Their supplier hadn't filed for a MOFCOM export license. Hadn't even mentioned it. The magnets — 1,200kg of arc segments for 15,000 motor assemblies — sat in a bonded warehouse while their OEM customer's production line waited.
The trading company scrambled to file paperwork, but MOFCOM licenses take approximately 45 working days to process. There's no expedite option. No rush fee. No shortcut. The client was looking at 2+ months of delay, penalty clauses from their OEM, and a frantic search for an alternative supplier.
THE INSIGHT
You Can't Speed Up MOFCOM. But You Can Start Earlier.
The MOFCOM approval process is fixed — roughly 45 working days, no exceptions. Most suppliers treat it as something to deal with after production is done. That's the mistake.
Mainrich's approach: start filing the day the order is confirmed. While your magnets are being sintered, ground, coated, and inspected (typically 4–6 weeks for a production run), our export compliance team is simultaneously preparing documentation, securing composition test reports, and submitting to MOFCOM.
By the time production is complete and goods are packed, the export license is either already approved or days away. The result: zero delay at Customs. Zero surprise holds. Your shipment goes out on schedule.
How It Works: Parallel Processing
Production Track
Week 1
Order confirmed. Raw material allocated. Tooling prepared.
Week 2–3
Sintering, pressing, rough machining.
Week 4–5
Precision grinding, coating, magnetization.
Week 6
QC inspection, packing, ready for shipment.
Export Compliance Track (Parallel)
Week 1
End-Use Certificate drafted. Composition test report ordered from third-party lab.
Week 2
Documentation reviewed, translated, formatted to MOFCOM standards. Submitted.
Week 3–7
MOFCOM review period (~45 working days). We respond to any clarification requests within hours.
Week 8–9
License approved. Goods cleared for export.
The key: Production and export compliance run simultaneously. For standard production runs (4–6 weeks), the license approval completes right around the same time goods are ready — or shortly after. Either way, there's no 45-day gap sitting idle waiting for MOFCOM after your magnets are already boxed up.
WHAT HAPPENED
The Client Switched. The Delays Stopped.
After the Customs hold disaster with their trading company, the German Tier-1 switched to Mainrich. Their first order with us shipped on schedule — production completed in 5 weeks, export license approved in the same window. No Customs hold. No delay.
Every order since has followed the same pattern. We've now processed multiple MOFCOM licenses for this client with a 100% approval rate and zero shipment delays. Their OEM has never experienced a late delivery since the switch.
For their latest orders, we also offered reformulated grades with lower Dy/Tb content — developed in-house since the controls took effect — that still meet their thermal and coercivity specs. Some of these grades fall below the dual-use threshold entirely, which means no MOFCOM license is needed at all.
The real value isn't speed — nobody can make MOFCOM move faster. The value is that we build the compliance timeline into the production timeline from Day 1, and where possible, engineer around the restrictions altogether.
What Their Trading Company Did
- • Finished production, then started paperwork
- • 45+ working days of idle waiting
- • Goods stuck in bonded warehouse
- • Client blindsided at Customs
- • Penalty clauses triggered
What Mainrich Does
- • Starts filing on Day 1 of order confirmation
- • Production and compliance run in parallel
- • License ready when goods are ready
- • Client informed at every milestone
- • Zero shipment delays to date
0
Shipment delays since switching
$0
Penalty fees incurred
100%
MOFCOM approval rate
“Our previous supplier finished production and then told us we needed to wait another 45 days for an export license. With Mainrich, the license was ready two days after production finished. We didn't even have to think about it — they handled everything.”— Procurement Director, German Tier-1 Automotive Supplier
Worried About Export Compliance?
Tell us your magnet specs and destination country. We'll confirm whether a MOFCOM license is needed and show you how we build compliance into your production timeline — so it never causes a delay.