This week, rare earth prices fluctuated rangebound, and the market is expected to remain unlikely to break through the current price range. This situation is primarily driven by contractions on both the supply and demand sides, along with intense competition between upstream and downstream players.  

Sampling at Victory Metals' North Stanmore heavy rare earth project in Western Australia revealed the highest-grade orebody among global clay-type rare earth mines, with a dysprosium grade as high as 0.0218%.

SMM News: On the evening of September 16, Beijing time, after U.S. stocks opened, rare earth concept stocks bucked the trend and strengthened. USA Rare Earth's stock price surged over 15% at the opening, American Resources rose over 9%, and MP Materials gained over 3%. Although this round of gains was directly driven by market sentiment, it fundamentally reflects investors' strong expectations for the recent intensive rare earth industry support policies introduced by the Trump administration.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Pr-Nd Prices Fluctuate Rangebound, Medium-Heavy Rare Earth Market Remains Sluggish] This week, Pr-Nd alloy was quoted at 695,000-705,000 yuan/mt, pulling back from the price at the beginning of the week. At the start of the week, influenced by tenders for Pr-Nd alloy from several major magnetic material enterprises, market sentiment turned bullish again, and metal enterprises showed a weaker willingness to sell at low prices, driving a slight price increase. However, after the concentrated procurement by downstream magnetic material enterprises concluded, overall market inquiries were sluggish, with few actual transactions, leading to a price pullback.

Last week, Pr-Nd oxide prices fell to 550,000 yuan/mt and then rebounded rapidly, rising to 580,000 yuan/mt as of today. A deep analysis of the reasons behind this bottoming out of Pr-Nd oxide prices reveals that the shift in market supply and demand sentiment was undoubtedly the most critical driving factor.

In August 2025, China's sintered NdFeB magnetic material industry showed a MoM decline in production but saw the consolidation of advantages among top-tier enterprises. According to SMM's frontline survey data, the national total production of sintered NdFeB reached 29,599 mt that month, down approximately 6.3% MoM. In terms of production structure, top-tier enterprises produced 20,904 mt, accounting for 70.45% of the total; mid-tier enterprises produced 6,997 mt, accounting for 23.74%; and small-tier enterprises accounted for only 5.81%.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Rare Earth Prices Continued to Decline with Weak Downstream Procurement Demand] This week, Pr-Nd oxide prices remained weak. However, as prices fell to low levels, metal plants' restocking willingness gradually increased, and suppliers' offers became firmer. Today, Pr-Nd oxide prices pulled back to 550,000-554,000 yuan/mt. Some market participants believe that Pr-Nd oxide prices are expected to start a rebound trend.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Rare Earth Prices Fluctuated with Medium-Heavy Rare Earth Prices Rising] This week, the price trend of Pr-Nd oxide remained weak. Currently, most industry players maintained a strong wait-and-see sentiment due to the impact of news factors, leading to significantly weaker market procurement activity. Although separation plants held firm on their quotations, some traders had already begun actively selling at lower prices. Within the week, the price of Pr-Nd oxide pulled back to 595,000-598,000 yuan/mt.

SMM's monthly production data for base metals is released at the end of each month, aiming to uncover the true fundamentals for industry chain professionals and investors, and providing a clearer grasp of the future direction of the metals market.