SHANGHAI, Mar 10 (SMM)—Quotations of mainstream rare earth products were still going up last week, but the trend slowed down after the surge in the previous week.
Inquiries in the market has decreased, but the transaction price has gradually increased. The upstream separation plants were reluctant to sell goods, and the quotations were scarce. Metal plants were making purchases at low prices. The magnetic material plants were in a wait-and-see attitude. Currently, the raw materials inventories are decreasing. Some magnetic materials companies said that the prices accepted by downstream customers are far lower than the market prices of raw materials. Although new orders have begun to decline, overall demand is still improving.
Rare earth permanent magnet is the core material for new energy vehicle drive motors. With the global increase in new energy vehicles, the demand for the magnetic material industry is about to boost. In the context of carbon neutrality, rare earth permanent magnet motors are more environmentally friendly, which can save 20-30% of the energy on average compared to traditional motors. The expansion of demand for rare earth is also the general trend. With the rise in domestic rare earth prices, the price of Myanmar ore has also risen, and the supply is scarce, according to some rare earth ore traders. Although the first batch of rare earth mining indicators this year has increased significantly over the same period in 2020, the production is hard to increase significantly in short term. The actual increase is expected to be very limited and the tight supply pattern will extend.
Light rare earth: As of March 5, neodymium praseodymium oxide was quoted 590,000-600,000 yuan/mt, and the weekly average price increased by 11.46% from previous week to 581,500 yuan/mt. Praseodymium oxide was quoted 520,000-540,000 yuan/mt, with the weekly average price up 9.39% on the week to 501,000 yuan/mt. Neodymium oxide was quoted 690,000-790,000 yuan/mt, and the weekly average price increased by 7.2% on the week to 686,500 yuan/mt. In addition, according to some companies, the price of lanthanum and cerium has begun to pick up due to the adjustment of the power rationing policy in Inner Mongolia.
Heavy rare earth: As of March 5, terbium oxide was quoted 9,980-10,000 yuan/kg, and the weekly average price increased by 8.31% from the previous week to 9,943 yuan/kg. Dysprosium oxide was quoted 3,000-3,100 yuan/kg, with the weekly average price up 15.21% on the week to 3,000 yuan/kg. Erbium oxide was quoted 200,000-210,000 yuan/mt, and the weekly average price increased 6.93% on the week to 193,000 yuan/kg. Holmium oxide was quoted 1.05-1.10 million yuan/mt, the weekly average price up 19.89% from the previous week to 1.06 million yuan/mt.
SMM expects that the rare earth market will continue to grow steadily this week, the trend of praseodymium and neodymium products will stabilise, and the terbium and dysprosium products will continue to trend upward.
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