Rare Earth Prices Continue to Decline Amid Weak Downstream Procurement Demand [SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review]

September 11 (SMM) -

Rare Earth Ore:

Today, the price range for rare earth carbonate was 44,600-44,900 yuan/mt, monazite prices adjusted to 52,500-54,000 yuan/mt, and medium-yttrium, europium-rich ore prices were around 214,000-216,000 yuan/mt. Currently, the ion-adsorption ore market remains sluggish in purchase activity, with some suppliers actively offloading cargo, but the overall trading atmosphere remains sluggish.

Rare Earth Oxides:

Currently, lanthanum oxide prices were temporarily stable at 4,300-4,900 yuan/mt, cerium oxide prices also held steady this week at 10,700-11,000 yuan/mt, with cerium oxide supply remaining tight, suppliers quoting high, and low-priced sources hard to find. This week, Pr-Nd oxide prices continued to trend weak, but as prices fell to low levels, metal plants' restocking willingness gradually increased, and suppliers' quotes gradually firmed up. Today, Pr-Nd oxide prices pulled back to 550,000-554,000 yuan/mt, with some industry participants believing that Pr-Nd oxide prices are expected to start rebounding. In the medium-heavy rare earth sector, major producers continued to purchase dysprosium oxide this week, with dysprosium oxide prices overall relatively stable, trading prices basically stable within the range of 1.62-1.63 million yuan/mt during the week. Terbium oxide prices showed a noticeable pullback this week as market speculation cooled, dropping rapidly to 7.15-7.2 million yuan/mt by today. Holmium oxide and erbium oxide also saw a significant decline in inquiry and purchase activity this week, with holmium oxide prices falling to 550,000-560,000 yuan/mt during the week, and erbium oxide prices also dropping back slightly to the range of 334,000-338,000 yuan/mt. Yttrium oxide prices remained stable this week within the range of 48,000-50,000 yuan/mt, still showing no significant fluctuations.

Rare Earth Metals:

This week, Pr-Nd alloy was quoted at 680,000-695,000 yuan/mt, continuing to weaken compared to the beginning of the week. This was mainly due to weak procurement demand from downstream magnetic material enterprises, resulting in sluggish market inquiries and scarce actual transactions. However, leading metal enterprises, with good order books and tight spot inventory, were reluctant to sell, showing strong reluctance to budge on prices, which curbed further declines in Pr-Nd alloy prices. But as Pr-Nd alloy prices continued to adjust downward, downstream magnetic material enterprises' purchase willingness increased. As of now, several major magnetic material enterprises have tendered for Pr-Nd alloy, and market prices are stabilizing. In the medium-heavy rare earth sector, terbium metal was quoted at 8.9-9 million yuan/mt, and dysprosium-iron alloy at 1.57-1.59 million yuan/mt. Affected by stagnant market transactions, prices for medium-heavy metals such as dysprosium and terbium saw slight adjustments, with metal enterprises showing weak offering willingness and actual transactions in the doldrums. However, with increased downstream procurement activities, prices for dysprosium and terbium products stopped falling and stabilized.

Rare earth permanent magnets

NdFeB blank prices: NdFeB blank N38 (Ce) was quoted at 200-210 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 40M was quoted at 246-256 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 40H was quoted at 250-260 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 45SH (Ce) was quoted at 300-320 yuan/kg.

This week, the rare earth magnetic material market showed a slight downward trend in quotations and overall stable trading activity. Price adjustments were mainly influenced by the pullback in upstream rare earth raw material prices, and magnetic material enterprises generally lowered their quotations slightly due to weakened cost support. Although some end-users began stockpiling for the year-end push for annual targets, leading to a slight rebound in orders, it did not effectively reverse the weak market demand. Meanwhile, the current market polarization trend continued to intensify: leading end-users, leveraging scale and channel advantages, continued to squeeze the market share of small and medium-sized producers. This trend transmitted upward to the magnetic material segment, further polarizing magnetic material enterprises. Large magnetic material enterprises maintained relatively high operating rates by securing high-quality customers, technological upgrades, and capacity scale, while small and medium-sized producers faced pressures from insufficient orders and intensified competition, leading to increased industry concentration. Although demand in certain sectors (such as NEVs and industrial robots) remained resilient, procurement in traditional areas like consumer electronics and wind power remained cautious, and overall rare earth magnetic material demand did not see a significant improvement.

Rare earth scrap:

This week, Pr-Nd recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 577-582 yuan/kg; dysprosium recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 1,620-1,643 yuan/kg; terbium recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 5,439-5,550 yuan/kg.

This week, scrap market prices continued to decline, mainly affected by the ongoing weakness in oxide market prices. At the beginning of the week, Pr-Nd oxide market transactions were weak, and some traders, lacking confidence in the future market, began selling Pr-Nd oxide at low prices, leading to a continued decline in Pr-Nd oxide market prices. Recycling enterprises' bullish sentiment was weakened, and their expectations for market prices shifted, leading them to actively sell at low prices. As a result, willingness to purchase scrap weakened, making it difficult to conclude transactions at high prices in the scrap market, and prices continued to fall. Additionally, due to the impact of tax policies, procurement quotations from recycling enterprises across regions were relatively chaotic, and overall market trading was weak. Overall, scrap procurement activities slowed down as oxide prices declined, and the scrap market performed poorly in terms of trading. In the short term, as oxide market prices begin to stabilize and rebound, scrap prices are expected to rise.