Rare earth industry prices rebound or short-lived

Rare-earth industry, weak rebound prices rebounded or short-lived in mid-November, with the rare-earth supply tightening, rare earth prices rebounded across the board, triggering expectations of the warming of the rare earth industry.

The industry believes that the current rebound in the entire rare earth price or short-term phenomenon, due to the long-term low prices of rare earth and the downstream consumer market contraction, the future growth of the company's performance will face greater pressure.

According to relevant media reports, since the beginning of November, the prices of rare earth oxides such as yttrium oxide, lanthanum oxide, and yttrium iron have increased significantly. Among them, the largest increase in cerium oxide, up to nearly 35%; while the increase in cerium oxide, niobium iron is also more than 30%. In addition, lanthanum oxide, yttrium oxide, antimony metal and other species all experienced a rise of more than 10%.

Li Yongliang, an analyst at Caitong Securities Rare Earth Industry, believes that companies represented by Baotou Steel Rare Earth [32.72-0.15% Zhuba Research] and Minmetals have taken initiatives to restrict production of some rare earth smelting and separation industries, and publicly listed the acquisition of rare earth oxides. Things and a series of measures to help stabilize the price of rare earth raw materials, resulting in the gradual increase in the price of metal materials such as antimony.

According to industry insiders, whether this round of market conditions can be maintained depends on whether the current round of price rebound can continue into the first quarter of next year.

Although the rebound in the prices of rare earth raw materials has triggered people's expectations of the industry's warming, analysts believe that the future growth of related companies will also face greater difficulties. The data shows that the five listed companies with NdFeB permanent magnet materials production and processing as the main business achieved cumulative operating revenue of 8.499 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 7.43%.

In addition, the current price of rare earth raw materials in China has fallen by 60% to 70% compared with the peak price of last year. The continued decline in the prices of rare earth raw materials has also inhibited the recovery of demand for NdFeB downstream applications. It is understood that high-performance neodymium-iron boron is widely used in wind power generation, energy-saving elevators, energy-saving air-conditioning and new energy vehicles and other industries.

A relevant person in the wind power motor manufacturing industry said that since the beginning of this year, the price of wind power equipment has been falling. Taking into account the product demand is not very good, so companies are interested in controlling raw material costs, adjusting the technical route to reduce the proportion of rare earth permanent magnet materials used.

“Because it is difficult to withstand the diving of raw material prices, some rare earth permanent magnet processing enterprises in the south have already closed down,” said a rare earth raw material trader who declined to be named to the reporter.

Experts from the China Institute of Rare Earths also believe that the rare earth prices are closely related to the recessionary economic environment and the demand for rare earths has been shrinking. The task of integration and merger and reorganization of the rare earth industry is also very arduous, and the rare earth market will hardly recover during the year.