Rare earth exports shrink in Apr

China rare earth producer Shenghe Resources which has survived the Sichuan flood, issued an update on its losses yesterday.

The adjustment brought quotes of terbium oxide to 4.7 million yuan/mt, up 150,000 yuan/mt from a week ago, marking the seventh consecutive week of increase. This followed a rise of 100,000 yuan/mt in the previous week.  

China’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate rebounded on the month in May, rising 24.83% from a month ago to 1.68 million mt, as deliveries resumed from the top supplier the Philippines as the country eased lockdown measures imposed to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China Southern Rare Earth Group, one of the six state-owned rare earth mining groups in China, continued to lift the listed prices for terbium oxide, a type of medium-to-heavy rare earth oxide, for this week. 

Prices of praseodymium-neodymium oxides, a type of light rare earth, increased for the fifth consecutive day as of May 14, lifted by stepped-up downstream stockpiling as demand resumes with the fading impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Southwest China's Yunnan province has unveiled detailed allocation of its first batch of rare earth and tungsten mining output quotas for this year. According to a circular issued by the province’s Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday, Yunnan issued 2,615 mt of mining quotas for tungsten concentrate and 12 mt for rare earth in the first batch for 2020.

China Southern Rare Earth Group, one of the six, state-owned rare earth mining groups in China, has raised the weekly listed prices for gadolinium oxide and holmic oxide while cut prices of erbium oxide. Overall demand for medium-and-heavy rare earth oxides remained weak. 

Prices of light and medium-to-heavy rare earth products mostly declined last week as the widespread COVID-19 overseas weakened investors’ prospects for demand and kept domestic consumers from...

Demand for rare earth may continue to face potential impact from the coronavirus, but costs will lend some support to rare earth prices, SMM estimates. In the long run, bullish prospects for China’s infrastructure development and more stimulus measures for its new energy vehicle market are expected to lift consumption of rare earth and revive the market. 

China's imports of cobalt raw materials, including ore and intermediate products, came in at 8,000 mt in January, down 25% from December, showed the latest customs data. Imports in 2019 were 24%...