Market Inquiries Remained Weak Last Week, Weighing on Rare Earth Prices Slightly

SHANGHAI, Oct 24 (SMM) - Rare earth prices started to fall last week with poor inquiries and transactions. Baotou city was still in covid lockdown, while local separation and metal factories were able to maintain normal production, with some even managing to make shipments. In addition, Beicang district in Ningbo city experienced a new round of pandemic outbreak, but local magnetic material factories reported normal production. Nonetheless, the frequent pandemic outbreak has weighed on the terminal demand to some extent, which is likely to contain follow-up orders. The prices of PrNd products fell on muted trades. In addition, the downstream magnetic material factories were increasingly wait-and-see on falling rare earth prices, but mostly purchased on demand.

According to SMM research, as of October 21, in terms of light rare earth products, the prices of PrNd oxide (daily average price) stood at 667,500 yuan/mt, down 17,500 yuan/mt from the previous week; PrNd alloy 817,500 yuan/mt, down 10,000 yuan/mt; neodymium oxide 760,000 yuan/mt, flat; neodymium metal 930,000 yuan/mt, up 10,000 yuan/mt; lanthanum oxide 6,900 yuan/mt, flat; and cerium oxide 7,450 yuan/mt, flat. For heavy rare earth, dysprosium iron prices stood at 2,305,000 yuan/mt on daily average, flat from a week ago; gadolinium iron 337,500 yuan/mt, flat; and holmium iron 732,500 yuan/mt, down 5,000 yuan/mt.

The prices of rare earths fell slightly last week compared with a wekk ago, and the prices of light rare earths fell slightly more palpably. On the supply side, the current supply of spot PrNd products was still tight, while the pandemic situation in Baotou has not yet disrupted local production, hence the prices dropped slightly. The demand side was weak amid the wait-and-see sentiment among magnetic material factories. Short-term rare earth prices are likely to remain stable.