Rare Earth to Usher in A New Round of Price Hike

SHANGHAI, Oct 13 (SMM) - The rare earth market saw extensive prices hike this week though the transaction has been slack. While the traders were mostly optimistic over the future trajectory of development, thus held back goods, supporting the spot prices.

As of Oct 12, the transaction prices of PrNd oxide has grown to 605,000 yuan/mt, and it is hard to find any spot below the price of 605,000 yuan/mt. The highest offer stood at 608,000 yuan/mt. The transaction prices of PrNd alloy has also picked up, with some done at 755,000 yuan/mt with credit and 748,000 yuan/mt in cash. Some magnetic material enterprises have also decided to raise its quotes. But the prices of other light rare earth products were relatively stable.

In terms of medium and heavy rare earths, the transaction prices of terbium oxide stood between 8.9-8.95 million yuan/mt, and dysprosium oxide was mostly traded at 2.72-2.75 million yuan/mt; the prices of terbium metal and dysprosium iron also trended up slightly. Some large plants quoted 11.5-11.6 million yuan/mt for terbium metal, 2.74-2.75 million yuan/mt for dysprosium iron. The overall transactions of metals have been muted.

For other medium and heavy rare earths, the prices of gadolinium, erbium, yttrium, holmium all rose significantly. Among them, the prices of erbium oxide have reached 230,000 yuan/mt, a new high since the beginning of this year. It is rumoured that some magnetic material enterprises use erbium iron instead of holmium iron to produce magnetic materials.