Japan Quake Not Prevent Rare Earth Prices from Gaining

SHANGHAI, Mar. 17 (SMM) – After the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake which struck northeast Japan on March 11th, 2011, many semi-conductor producers of Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, and Canon in the negatively-affected regions have stopped production.  In this context, Japan’s demand for rare earths will reduce in the short term, and that will exert pressure on China’s rare earth exports. However, prices of rare earths will not stop rising.

According to SMM sources, prices of major rare earths have kept rising since 2011.  Prices of neodymium metal gained from RMB 330,000/mt to RMB 630,000/mt, up as much as 90.9%. Prices of praseodymium metal rose from RMB 290,000/mt to RMB 550,000/mt, up 89.7%. As of March 16th since the massive quake on March 11th, prices of neodymium metal and praseodymium metal were keeping rising, and prices of rare earth carbonate, and cerium lanthanum chloride were gaining every day. 

Supply of rare earths remains tight, with unavailability of some rare earth metals.  Hence, SMM believes that prices of rare metals will continue to gain. 

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