China's total titanium dioxide exports in 2023 increased by 16.8% [SMM Analysis]

[SMM Flash: Cyclic Materials to Build Rare Earth Recycling Plant in South Carolina] Canadian rare earth and metal recycling enterprise Cyclic Materials announced plans to invest over $82 million to construct a rare earth recycling plant in South Carolina. This facility is the company's second announced synergistic plant in the US, with an initial capacity to process 2,000 mt of magnetic material, and the company plans to increase its annual processing capacity to 6,000 mt. The company also stated that the new plant is initially expected to produce 600 mt of mixed rare earth oxides annually, with future capacity potentially expandable to 1,800 mt to meet growing market demand.

Chile has released its National Critical Minerals Strategy, clearly positioning itself as a stable supplier of minerals. Currently, driven by artificial intelligence, the development of new technologies, and the energy transition, global demand for these critical minerals continues to grow. The announcement of this strategy holds particular significance in the weeks before President Boric leaves office, highlighting Chile’s intention to transition from over-reliance on the copper industry toward adapting to a decarbonized economy and achieving resource diversification. Chile has identified 14 critical minerals, specifically covering copper, lithium, molybdenum, rhenium, cobalt, rare earths, antimony, selenium, tellurium, gold, silver, iron ore, boron, and iodine. Based on Chile’s current position in the global market, these 14 minerals are categorized into three groups: The first category includes copper, lithium, molybdenum, and rhenium. Their respective shares in global supply are 23%, 20.4%, 14.6%, and 46.8%, and other major economies have also designated these minerals as critical. The second category consists of minerals that are currently not produced or only produced in small quantities, including cobalt, rare earths, antimony, selenium, and tellurium. The third category comprises minerals already produced domestically in Chile with the potential to expand their role in the global value chain, such as gold, silver, iron ore, boron, and iodine.

This week, overseas prices continued to rise due to multiple factors, and shipments tightened further. Key developments emerged in raw ore mining across the US, Asia, and Latin America. The US government strengthened domestic rare earth capacity through large-scale funding, a Malaysia-France cooperation project achieved substantial progress, Brazil formulated a national rare earth strategy to unlock resource potential, and India considered adjustments to mining policies to enhance extraction efficiency. These measures collectively reflect countries' heightened focus on rare earth supply chain security, though technological, cost, and capacity bottlenecks remain widespread challenges.