The international supply pattern changes behind the high prosperity of the rare earth race track: maintaining the safety and smooth flow of the supply chain of the rare earth industry chain

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With the strengthening of the attribute of rare earth new energy, the supply and demand pattern of rare earth is reshaped, and the industrial chain continues to be prosperous. A reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned from an interview at the 13th China Baotou rare Earth Industry Forum held on December 20 that China's rare earth industry is developing rapidly, but behind the high growth, the international supply pattern of rare earths has changed, and the determination to "de-Sinicize" abroad is obvious. and the application of rare earth elements is not balanced, the lack of domestic high-end application technology and other problems are prominent.

People in the industry have suggested that we should strengthen technical investment, improve the utilization efficiency of rare earths, encourage the development of downstream applications with high abundance of lanthanum and cerium, build a community of interests and a shared future in the supply chain of the rare earth industry chain, and make good use of both international and domestic markets. speed up the rational distribution of global resources.

Rare earth industry is in the ascendant.

Yang Wenhao, vice president and secretary general of the China rare Earth Industry Association, pointed out at the forum that the overall operation of domestic rare earth enterprises has shown a good upward trend in recent years, except that some products have declined due to technological upgrading and substitution. Rare earth smelting separation products and other major types of rare earth materials have maintained a steady growth trend.

Chen Zhanheng, deputy secretary general of the China rare Earth Society, said at the forum that at present, the output value of rare earth minerals to new rare earth materials is about 110 billion yuan, including 16 billion yuan for rare earth minerals, 24 billion yuan for separation products, and 20 billion yuan for rare earth metals. the output value of new rare earth materials including rare earth permanent magnets, luminescence, catalysis, hydrogen storage, polishing and advanced ceramic materials is about 60 billion yuan. Considering that the price of rare earths has risen about three times, the current output value of rare earth minerals to rare earth materials is about 3000-400 billion yuan.

In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, which accounts for 56 per cent of domestic rare earth supply, for example, from January to November 2021, the output value of Baotou rare earth industry reached 35.5 billion yuan, an increase of 70 per cent over the same period last year, the highest growth rate in the same period in nearly a decade. In 2021, there are 42 key rare earth projects under construction in Baotou City, with a total investment of 12.9 billion yuan.

Rare earth permanent magnet materials are the most widely used in the downstream of rare earths, in which NdFeB is the main one. The end products mainly include automobile, home appliances, wind power, robots, consumer electronics and other fields. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles and wind power, the demand for NdFeB has skyrocketed, and the corresponding demand for rare earths such as praseodymium, neodymium, terbi The reporter noted that in order to get close to rare earth resources, permanent magnet material manufacturers have built projects in Baotou or expanded production locally, such as Ningbo Yunsheng, Jinli permanent Magnet, Antai Technology, Earth Bear and so on.

According to the Huaan Securities Research report, the demand for new energy has broken out in an all-round way, and the global demand for high-performance NdFeB is expected to reach 196800 tons in 2025, with an CAGR of 18.57%. According to estimates, the supply of praseodymium and neodymium oxide in 2020 is 66600 tons, the demand is 67200 tons, and the supply gap is 542 tons. It is expected that the supply gap will gradually expand from 2021 to 2025, reaching 379 pounds, 1195, 3227 pounds, 7335 pounds, 12936 tons, respectively.

Increase the downstream application and development of lanthanum and cerium with high abundance

While the downstream of praseodymium and neodymium is widely used and in short supply, the application of high abundance elements such as lanthanum and cerium is insufficient, and the application of rare earth resources

Li Chunlong, chairman of the China Society of rare Earths, told the Financial Associated Press that the properties of 17 rare earths vary greatly, with praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium being commonly used, while lanthanum and cerium with high abundance are rarely used in traditional applications. What needs to be done now is to strengthen the development of downstream applications such as lanthanum and cerium, and encourage all kinds of material enterprises to use lanthanum and cerium more. Generally speaking, lanthanum is used as glass and laser material and cerium as catalytic material. With the continuous improvement of national basic research and deepening understanding of rare earths, rare earths will play a more important role in more fields. It revealed that there are many scientific research projects in the development of lanthanum and cerium applications, among which a team is developing the application of cerium in magnetic materials.

"the most important way to solve the problem of imbalance in the application of rare earth elements is to increase the application of lanthanum and cerium with high abundance." Huang Xiaowei, chief scientist of Youyan Technology Group and director of the National Engineering Research Center for rare Earth Materials, also told the Financial Associated Press that because when rare earths are mined, many elements come out at the same time, most of them are light rare earths, such as Baotou ore lanthanum and cerium accounts for 68%, so it is necessary to increase the application of lanthanum and cerium. Through technological research and development, the development of new applications, such as aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, iron and steel and other large industries, can be more widely used.

A reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned that with the gradual deepening of people's understanding of rare earths, their applications have expanded from aerospace and military industry to 3C, elevators, medical, and other civilian fields, and the application and research of high-abundance rare earths such as lanthanum and cerium are also in-depth, and continue to realize industrialization.

The rare earth nanometer heat-breaking material developed and industrialized by China thin and easy Tu Technology Development Co., Ltd. is the downstream application of high abundance rare earths such as lanthanum and cerium. Yang Yan, chairman of the company, told the Financial Associated Press that the company's thermal rare earth coating was jointly developed with the Tianjin Branch of Baotou rare Earth Research Institute. after conquering the laboratory preparation technology, the company set up a production line in Tianjin according to market demand and began to promote it in 2020. The product is like putting a thick layer of sunscreen on the outside of the object, directly on the glass surface, which can quickly cool down within 3 hours and greatly reduce the energy consumption of indoor air conditioning. And can achieve visible light transmittance of more than 75%, and finally achieve 95% red / ultraviolet heat-off effect, and widely used in architectural glass, automotive glass and other fields, has a huge prospect and market.

Coincidentally, the lanthanum-yttrium-nickel hydrogen storage material with high calorie, wide temperature range and low Discharge developed by Baotou rare Earth Research Institute has an energy density of 370mAhshock g, which occupies a leading position in China, and has greatly improved the technical performance indicators of downstream hydrogen storage equipment and Ni-MH batteries, and the products have also started mass production.

The global supply pattern of rare earths has changed.

Although the domestic application of rare earths is becoming more and more extensive and the prosperity is constantly improving, it should be noted that the international pattern of rare earths is changing, which brings new challenges to the development of the industry.

Wang Yanli, assistant chairman of Shenghe Resources, believes that the current global rare earth supply is changing from China's unilateral supply to global diversified supply pattern, and foreign countries are determined to "de-Sinicize" and contain Chinese rare earths, which challenges China's status as a big country in rare earth resources. At the same time, the pressure on environmental protection is increasing, the environmental costs of rare earth mining and smelting are rising, and more than half of the domestic ion mines rely on imports, but the epidemic situation and the political situation in Myanmar and other factors lead to great uncertainty in supply; in addition, trade barriers may increase, foreign key core technology blockades bring pressure on application development, and there is still a big gap between China and foreign countries in terms of high-end rare earth functional materials, device application technology and intellectual property rights.

According to the latest statistics of the US Geological Survey, the global rare earth mineral output in 2020 is about 240000 tons. According to the national mandatory plan, China's rare earth mineral production is 140000 tons (including 19000 tons of ion ore), accounting for 58.3% of the total global output, although it still ranks first in the world. but the proportion has decreased year by year. Mineral production is 38000 tons in the United States, 24000 tons in Myanmar and 17000 tons in Australia.

Lin Hui, manager of the rare earth strategic marketing department of Jinlong in Changting, Fujian Province, pointed out at the forum that overseas has formed a pattern of multi-location supply of many kinds of mineral products, including fluorocarbon cerite, ionic ore, and so on. In particular, the quantity of ion mineral products mainly in Southeast Asia has exceeded that of China.

In the face of the change of the international pattern of rare earths, it has become an industry consensus to maintain the safe and smooth supply chain of the domestic rare earth industry chain Li Chunlong said: because of the international crackdown on domestic, on the contrary, it inspires us to better integrate all kinds of resources and increase our voice in the international market. Chang Guowu, deputy director of the Department of Raw material Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also proposed to strengthen the dominant position of enterprise innovation, support rare earth groups to take the lead in the establishment of innovation consortia, and promote the integration and innovation of large, medium and small enterprises in the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain. we will promote the integrated development of technology research and development, engineering demonstration and industrial application

On the news side, there has been a lot of news from relevant state ministries recently that the strategic cooperation between northern rare earths and Chinese rare earths, rare earth specialization and integration is expected to heat up. Huang Xiaowei told reporters that integration is a standardized industry, everyone in step, the country has the right to speak, can be more conducive to the development of the industry.