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

December 11 news:

Rare earth ore:

Today, the price range for rare earth carbonate was 46,800-47,000 yuan/mt, monazite prices adjusted to 52,700-53,700 yuan/mt, and medium-yttrium, europium-rich ore prices were around 208,000-210,000 yuan/mt. Recently, separation plants' purchase willingness remained weak, market activity in the rare earth ore sector continued to be low, and the deduction level for ion-adsorption ore TC remained relatively large.

Rare earth oxides:

Recently, lanthanum oxide prices showed no significant fluctuations, with lanthanum oxide prices stabilizing at 4,300-4,700 yuan/mt. Cerium oxide prices also remained stable this week at 11,000-12,000 yuan/mt. Cerium oxide market prices were relatively firm due to tight supply, but demand for cerium metal remained weak, making it difficult for oxide prices to follow up. Pr-Nd oxide prices showed an overall downward trend this week. Although Pr-Nd oxide supply remained tight, downstream alloy plants had strong wait-and-see sentiment amid weak demand, making it difficult to transact high-priced Pr-Nd oxide. Some traders actively sold at lower prices, causing Pr-Nd oxide prices to further pull back to 577,000-580,000 yuan/mt within the week. This week, dysprosium oxide prices continued in the doldrums. Under sustained weak downstream demand, dysprosium oxide prices were under pressure. However, due to procurement by top-tier enterprises during the week, the price decline was relatively small, with prices adjusting to 1.36-1.4 million yuan/mt within the week. Terbium oxide market prices also remained in the doldrums, with alloy plants' purchase willingness low, and offers pulled back to 6.3-6.33 million yuan/mt. Holmium oxide market prices showed slight recovery this week. As of today, prices adjusted to the range of 494,000-496,000 yuan/mt. Erbium oxide prices remained stable, maintaining the range of 346,000-352,000 yuan/mt this week. Yttrium oxide prices also stayed stable at 45,000-47,000 yuan/mt this week, with no significant market fluctuations.

Rare earth metals:

This week, Pr-Nd alloy prices showed a continuous weakening trend. As of now, Pr-Nd alloy prices pulled back to 700,000-710,000 yuan/mt. At the beginning of the week, due to few new orders from downstream magnetic material enterprises and limited acceptance of high-priced metals, downstream procurement attitude was cautious, with poor actual transaction performance. Coupled with traders actively selling at lower prices, Pr-Nd alloy market prices continued to pull back. However, driven by tender procurement from several major magnetic material enterprises, market inquiries improved, and Pr-Nd alloy prices began to stop falling and stabilize. In the medium-heavy rare earth market, terbium metal closed at 7.8-7.85 million yuan/mt, and dysprosium-iron alloy closed at 1.3-1.33 million yuan/mt. This week, downstream procurement demand did not improve. Although market inquiries increased due to tender purchases by large magnetic material enterprises, actual transaction prices remained weak. Most industry players lacked confidence in the future market, and prices of rare earth products such as dysprosium and terbium continued to decline.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnets

Currently, 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.

Prices of NdFeB dropped slightly this week. The core reason was that the price reduction of praseodymium-neodymium oxide, a raw material for NdFeB, led to a decrease in the price of NdFeB magnetic materials. In terms of transactions, market activity was moderate this week. Affected by persistently high raw material prices, domestic end-users generally adopted a wait-and-see attitude and were reluctant to place orders easily, hoping to make adjustments after a slight price pullback. Meanwhile, as the year-end approached, stockpiling by various end-user factories had basically ended, and the increase in rigid demand was not significant. Coupled with the overseas Christmas month, overall operating rates were not high, leading to a slow release of demand and moderate trading activity in the NdFeB market.

Rare Earth Scrap:

This week, Pr-Nd recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 600-605 yuan/kg; dysprosium recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 1,300-1,330 yuan/kg; terbium recycled from NdFeB scrap was quoted at 5,100-5,300 yuan/kg.

This week, scrap prices continued to weaken, with prices for Pr-Nd scrap, dysprosium scrap, and terbium scrap all declining. This was mainly due to the continued weakness in the oxide market, leading recycling enterprises to lower their scrap purchase offers correspondingly. As scrap prices continued to fall, suppliers' willingness to sell increased. Simultaneously, several magnetic material enterprises tendered to sell NdFeB scrap, resulting in ample overall supply in the scrap market. However, due to poor trading performance in the oxide market, recycling enterprises began to control their purchase quantities, mostly purchasing as needed. The overall market trading atmosphere was active. In summary, influenced by the continuous decline in oxide prices, recycling enterprises correspondingly lowered their scrap offers. However, with ample overall supply in the scrap market, recycling enterprises primarily purchased as needed.

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