Rare Earth Market Continued Sluggish and Prices of Many Rare Earth Products Dropped

SHANGHAI, Aug 4 (SMM) - The rare earth market today continued to be sluggish, and the prices of PrNd products dropped further. The mainstream transaction prices of PrNd oxide stood at 750,000-760,000 yuan/mt, with a few traded at 740,000 yuan/mt. The metal mills were cautious and only purchased on rigid demand at lows. PrNd alloy prices fell along with PrNd oxide prices. The transactions of PrNd alloy were poor with mainstream prices at 920,000-940,000 million yuan/mt. The mainstream prices of gadolinium oxide were 390,000-400,000 yuan/mt, with a small number of trades at low prices and scarce transactions at high prices. The prices of dysprosium and terbium products extended falling slightly. The prices of dysprosium oxide were 2.30-2.32 million yuan/mt, and that of terbium oxide stood between 13.75-13.80 million yuan/mt. The market was quiet with rare actual trasactions. In the spot market today: the prices of PrNd oxide and alloy both fell, and stood at 750,000-760,000 yuan/mt and 920,000-940,000 yuan/mt respectively; dysprosium oxide prices fell to 2.30-2.32 million yuan/mt, dysprosium metal prices stabilised between 3.05-3.1 million yuan/mt, and dysprosium iron prices declined to 2.30-2.32 million yuan/mt; prices of terbium oxide and metal were lowered to 13.75-13.8 million yuan/mt and 17.45-17.5 million yuan/mt respectively; gadolinium oxide was mainly traded between 390,000-400,000 million yuan/mt, and gadolinium iron 3870,000-380,000 yuan/mt; prices of erbium oxide declined to 310,000-320,000 yuan/mt. Due to the continued weak downstream demand, the new orders of magnetic material companies were insufficient, which led to less purchasing interest in PrNd alloy. As the raw material of PrNd alloy, PrNd oxide also saw a reducing demand. Some metal mills only restocked as needed and the actual trades were poor. Some traders were cautious on the sidelines with bearish sentiments towards the market outlook.