Difficulty in Rising Rare Earth Prices due to Decline in Operating Rate of Magnetic Material Enterprises

Rare earth market situation on May 17, 2023

The overall price of rare earth in China has shown a fluctuating upward trend, mainly manifested in the small increase in the prices of praseodymium neodymium oxide, gadolinium oxide, and dysprosium iron alloy to around 465000 yuan/ton, 272000 yuan/ton, and 1930000 yuan/ton, respectively. However, in this situation, some downstream users’ demand follow-up has been slower, resulting in difficulty in increasing market activity.

According to China Tungsten Online, the main reasons for the low demand for light and heavy rare earth raw materials are the obvious sentiment of buying up or not buying down downstream, a decrease in the production of rare earth functional materials such as permanent magnet materials, and an increase in rare earth waste recycling and regeneration technology. According to Cailian News Agency, the current operating rate of the first tier of downstream magnetic material enterprises is about 80-90%, and there are relatively few fully produced ones; The operating rate of the second tier team is basically 60-70%, and small enterprises are around 50%. Some small workshops in Guangdong and Zhejiang regions have ceased production.

In terms of news, the construction of Zhenghai magnetic material production capacity is steadily advancing. In 2022, the company’s East West and Fuhai factories are still in a period of ramp up production capacity construction. At the end of 2022, the production capacity of these two factories was 18000 tons, with an actual production capacity of 16500 tons during the year.