China Rare Earth Summit: Post-COVID Rebound in China Rare Earth Market 2020

SHANGHAI, Oct 15 (SMM)—The China Rare Earth and Permanent Magnet Industry Market Application Summit 2020—held by SMM—took place today, at which SMM senior analyst Hu Yan delivered a speech on the theme of “Post-COVID Rebound in China Rare Earth Market 2020”, introducing China rare earth concentrate quota, rare earth imports, demand, policies and price review and forecast.   

China has increased quotas for rare earth concentrate mining and smelting in order to satisfy downstream demand, especially demand from the new energy vehicle (NEV) market. These quotas were mainly for light rare earth products, a move to protect the more precious medium and heavy rare earth resources, she said.    

For the first seven months of 2020, China’s imports of rare earth metal concentrate from the US jumped 117% from the same period last year, totalling 45,000 mt. China imported nearly 28,000 mt of rare earth metal concentrate from the US in 2018, and 46,000 mt in 2019.

Prices of praseodymium-neodymium oxide fell before rising in 2020, bouncing back from the lowest of 260,000 yuan/mt to 350,000 yuan/mt. Tightened supply and improved demand significantly boosted terbium oxide prices to 5 million yuan/mt in 2020, while dysprosium oxide prices fluctuated between 1.7 million-1.95 million yuan/mt. In the fourth quarter, prices of praseodymium-neodymium oxide are likely to extend declines, while prices of terbium oxide and dysprosium are likely to continue to move range-bound.