Rare earth prices fall ahead of Baotou Steel prices, Ganzhou meeting

SHANGHAI, Jul 8 (SMM) – Prices of several rare-earth oxides across Chinese markets slipped last week, as the market awaited the release of Baotou Steel’s listed prices and the meeting in Ganzhou.

The overall rare earth market held stable in the week ended July 5, with prices of praseodymium-neodymium oxide, neodymium oxide, gadolinium oxide and terbium oxide falling, as some traders and small producers, in the face of weaker demand from downstream consumers, lowered their offers to offload cargoes.

Large producers maintained their quotes and remained generally optimistic.

Tighter supplies of medium, heavy rare-earth ore are expected to continue to push prices of refined materials higher, while a low consumption season and sufficient supplies are likely to weigh on prices of light rare-earth products, such as praseodymium-neodymium oxide in the short term.

Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel will release its semi-annual listed prices for rare-earth products later this month. The market also awaits this week’s meeting in Ganzhou of Jiangxi province, a major rare earth production base in China. The meeting will be held by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering and the Jiangxi government to discuss high-quality development of the sector.