Taiwan’s ITRI Plans 500-Tonne Rare-Earth Plant to Meet Half of Demand

Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) plans to build a demonstration plant designed to produce 500 metric tons of rare earths a year, enough to meet about half of the island’s needs by the end of 2030. ITRI President Chang Pei-zen gave the figures in an interview with Taiwan’s Central News Agency, first published in Chinese on 24 October and in English by Focus Taiwan.

The plant is “currently on the drawing board”, CNA reported. ITRI’s existing experimental line makes only about 5,000 kilograms a year, so the target is a hundredfold increase. A Ministry of Economic Affairs official set out the same goal on camera to TaiwanPlus a day later. He tied it to concern about Chinese export controls.

A demonstration plant, not yet funded

According to CNA, construction is targeted for completion by the end of 2028. Work to refine production processes and reach the planned output would follow. ITRI intends to put the plant in an industrial park so that it can eventually be handed over to a private company.

The financing is not settled. “Funding would need to be budgeted by the National Science and Technology Council, while commercial arrangements, including possible government price guarantees for investors, remain under discussion,” CNA reported Chang as saying. He said further talks would be needed on how to give prospective private investors enough assurance to take part.

The ministry wants the work to go faster. “We’ve asked the Industrial Technology Research Institute to quickly expand its experimental production line and collaborate with more companies,” Chou Chung-Pin of the ministry’s Department of Industrial Technology told TaiwanPlus. “Hopefully, we can produce 500 metric tons of rare earth oxides by 2030. That way, we can meet half of domestic demand.” Chou refers to oxides, while CNA’s report says rare earths without specifying the form.

The target has been raised once already

The half-of-demand goal is itself an upgrade. In February, Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin said after US–Taiwan economic talks that the ministry was backing ITRI to build a trial mass-production line within three years, CNA reported at the time. He said the original aim of meeting about a third of demand had been raised to about 50%.

Why a small user is worried

Taiwan’s demand for rare earths is relatively small but the materials are indispensable, Chang said. That is why the ministry wants a domestic supply chain. China’s controls have exposed risks beyond raw materials, reaching into components used in industrial equipment. CNA cited a Reuters report on Thursday that TSMC was exploring alternatives to rare-earth parts in its factory equipment to reduce the risk of disruption at its advanced chip plants. TSMC did not comment on that report.

Other importers are already under pressure. TSN reported this month that Japan’s yttrium supply has stalled as China curbs exports. Europe has an understanding with Beijing on export licences rather than a rule change, and has named 46 new strategic raw-materials projects.

Separation is the hard part

ITRI’s equipment at its headquarters in Hsinchu County handles rare-earth separation and conversion into metals, Chang said. Some equipment for making high-end magnets is at its Southern Region Campus in Tainan. Separation is difficult because the elements have very similar properties, he explained, and developing the process “can involve hundreds or even thousands of stages” and needs substantial experience.

The hundredfold jump is the real test

The headline number is ambitious mainly because of where ITRI is starting from. Moving from about 5 tonnes a year to 500 takes industrial scale-up, and the step most likely to slip is the one Chang himself calls hardest: a separation process that can take hundreds or thousands of stages to tune. Two years to build and two more to reach output leaves little slack. If that slips, the end-2030 date for meeting half of demand probably slips with it. The goal has already moved once this year, from a third to a half, without a budget behind it.

A price guarantee would decide whether investors come

The plant’s planned handover to a private company makes the commercial terms as important as the chemistry. Chang has said private investors will need enough assurance to take part, and possible government price guarantees are the tool under discussion. Until the National Science and Technology Council allocates money and those guarantees are agreed, this is a well-defined plan rather than a project. Similar efforts elsewhere show the gap between starting work and producing, as with Arafura’s groundbreaking in Australia. The first concrete sign will be a budget line in Taipei, not a ribbon in an industrial park.

Sources

• CNA (Chinese): ITRI President Chang Pei-zen on the rare-earth demonstration plant, 24 October 2026
• Focus Taiwan (CNA): ITRI plans rare-earth plant to meet half of Taiwan’s demand by 2030, 24 October 2026
• TaiwanPlus: Taiwan Targets 100-Fold Rare Earth Output Rise Amid China Export Controls, 25 October 2026
• CNA (Chinese): Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin on rare-earth trial line, 3 February 2026

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• EU and China Say They Will Ease Rare-Earth Export Licences. It Is an Understanding, Not a New Rule
• European Commission Selects 46 New Critical Raw Materials Strategic Projects. The Label Is Not Funding
• Arafura Breaks Ground at Its Nolans Rare Earths Project in Northern Territory, Australia