Rare Earth Prices Fluctuated Rangebound in March, What Is the Expected Trend in April? [SMM Analysis]

SMM March 28 News: This month, the prices of mainstream rare earth products mainly fluctuated rangebound. Among them, the price of Pr-Nd oxide pulled back relatively slowly due to purchases by leading large producers and producers standing firm on quotes. The difference between the lowest and highest quotes of Pr-Nd oxide within the month was only 7,000 yuan/mt. The prices of medium-heavy rare earths fell more significantly in the second half of the month due to weak demand.

In the first half of the month, as most industry participants were heavily in a wait-and-see mood and there was less market news, suppliers had a low willingness to cut prices, making it difficult to find low-priced goods in the market. Some buyers mainly made tentative purchases, and overall demand was relatively weak.

According to the SMM survey, the order situation of downstream magnetic material enterprises is not as expected. Some enterprises stated that existing orders can only maintain one month of production, and some enterprises' magnetic material production in March was halved compared to the previous month, which is far from the expectations of most industry participants before the Chinese New Year. In addition, the news that Myanmar mines are expected to resume operations began to spread from the middle of this month, shaking the confidence of suppliers, and the prices of rare earth products showed a significant pullback in the second half of this month. However, some industry participants believe that the supply and demand situation in the market may change again in the future, and the specific situation needs to wait for the issuance of the first batch of rare earth smelting and separation quotas and policy adjustments.

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