Rare Earth Prices Rose Overall This Week, Market Trading Remained Stagnant [SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review]

April 2 update:

Rare earth ore:

Today, rare earth carbonate prices ranged from 61,100-61,600 yuan/mt, monazite prices were adjusted to 4.8-5.3 yuan/mt, and medium-yttrium, europium-rich ore prices were around 247,000-249,000 yuan/mt. Recently, the circulation rate of rare earth ore remained low, the overall market trading atmosphere was sluggish, and some rare earth ore products were in a state of having quoted prices but no actual transactions.

Rare earth oxides:

Lanthanum oxide prices still saw a slight rise overall this week, with prices adjusted to 5,100-5,700 yuan/mt. Cerium oxide market prices fluctuated relatively little recently, remaining stable at 14,000-14,500 yuan/mt within the week. Pr-Nd oxide market prices continued to rise overall, driven by futures price fluctuations, speculative news factors, and the impact of some upstream separation enterprises halting production. Suppliers continuously raised their quotations, low-priced supplies tightened rapidly, and Pr-Nd oxide prices rose to 755,000-760,000 yuan/mt within the week. Medium-heavy rare earth side, dysprosium oxide market inquiries remained sluggish, upstream suppliers held firm on quotations, and dysprosium oxide was quoted at a slight adjustment to 1.36-1.38 million yuan/mt this week. Terbium oxide market trading activity remained low this week, supplier quotations were stagnant and stable, with prices still steady at 6.06-6.1 million yuan/mt within the week. Gadolinium oxide market, influenced by news factors combined with increased procurement by major producers, saw a notable increase in downstream inquiry activity, with quotations rapidly raised to 230,000-235,000 yuan/mt within the week. Holmium oxide market quotations stopped declining this week, but market transactions remained poor, with prices slightly adjusted to the 538,000-545,000 yuan/mt range. Erbium oxide supplier quotations remained firm, with low-priced supplies hard to find, and prices were slightly adjusted to 400,000-405,000 yuan/mt this week. Yttrium oxide market procurement activity declined slightly, some suppliers slightly lowered their quotations, and prices were slightly adjusted to 67,000-73,000 yuan/mt.

Rare earth metals:

This week, cerium metal prices performed steadily overall, remaining stable at 34,500-35,000 yuan/mt. Pr-Nd alloy prices showed a trend of rising first then falling this week, but the overall trend was upward, with prices adjusted to 915,000-925,000 yuan/mt. This was mainly due to raw material cost support. Around the Qingming Festival, orders from magnetic material enterprises improved, increasing procurement demand for Pr-Nd alloy. Strong bullish sentiment in the market, combined with rising raw material prices, led metal enterprises to raise their quotations accordingly. However, downstream magnetic material enterprises had limited acceptance of high-priced metals, causing high-priced Pr-Nd alloy transactions to be hindered and prices to pull back, with the market falling into a stalemate in the tug-of-war between upstream and downstream. Medium-heavy rare earth market side, dysprosium-iron alloy closed at 1.33-1.35 million yuan/mt. Prices were in the doldrums overall this week. Although prices were raised last Friday driven by market news, market inquiry activity remained sluggish this week, and suppliers lowered their quotations. Terbium metal prices remained stable at 7.55-7.6 million yuan/mt. Market inquiries continued to be sluggish this week, with no significant fluctuations in supplier quotations. Market trading activity was mediocre, and overall price fluctuations were relatively small. Gadolinium-iron alloy prices experienced a rise followed by a decline, mainly due to reduced downstream purchasing activity. Combined with raw material price corrections, some suppliers proactively lowered prices to facilitate shipments, causing gadolinium-iron prices to drop to 222,000-228,000 yuan/mt.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnets:

Currently, NdFeB blank N38 (Ce) closed at 236-246 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 40M closed at 282-292 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 40H closed at 286-296 yuan/kg; NdFeB blank 45SH (Ce) closed at 336-356 yuan/kg.

In terms of prices, NdFeB prices were slightly raised this week. The core reason was that NdFeB raw material Pr-Nd oxide and metal prices were slightly raised this week, driving up NdFeB external quotations. In terms of actual transactions, current NdFeB market transaction prices across various grades remained temporarily stable, and apart from a few individual manufacturers, the price differences among quotations on the market were relatively small. In terms of trading, trading activity was mediocre this week. On one hand, as raw material prices rose, downstream buyers found it difficult to accept high-priced materials and chose to temporarily consume inventory to cope with rising raw material prices. On the other hand, after rigid restocking from the demand side last week, the pace of order release slowed down significantly, and purchasing was suspended this week.

Rare Earth Scrap:

This week, Pr-Nd recycled from NdFeB scrap closed at 740-750 yuan/kg; dysprosium recycled from NdFeB scrap closed at 1,280-1,320 yuan/kg; terbium recycled from NdFeB scrap closed at 5,800-6,000 yuan/kg.

This week, scrap prices operated in a generally stable manner, mainly due to sluggish trading activity in the oxide market, with recycling enterprises showing little fluctuation in their external order signing quotations. Pr-Nd oxide prices overall exhibited a trend of rising first and then falling this week. Due to mediocre trading activity in the oxide market, recycling enterprises had relatively weak willingness to purchase at high prices, and their external order signing purchase quotations were relatively conservative. Meanwhile, as magnetic material enterprises resumed normal operations, the supply of tax-inclusive scrap improved somewhat, reducing procurement difficulty for recycling enterprises. However, scrap suppliers had relatively weak willingness to sell at low prices, resulting in no significant fluctuations in scrap Pr-Nd prices despite the pullback in Pr-Nd oxide prices.