China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers, two sources familiar with the matter said, as supply chain disruptions begin to surface from Beijing’s export curbs on those materials.

At least some of the licenses are valid for six months, the two sources said, declining to be named because the information is not public.

It was not immediately clear what quantity or items are covered by the approval or whether the move signals China is preparing to ease the rare-earths licensing process , which industry groups say is cumbersome and has created a supply bottleneck.

On Thursday, President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a lengthy phone call to iron out trade differences. 3

Trump said in social-media post that “

See Full Page