1. Briefing of Important News
This week, prices of PrNd, DyFe, and Tb kept on dropping. Price from Asian Metal at this weekend presented: PrNd metal 400-405RMB/KG, DyFe alloy 1870-1890RMB/KG, and Tb metal 5150-5200RMB/KG.
2. Analysis of Professional Insiders
This week, the market continued to decline. Upstream middle-sized and small-sized enterprises competed to ship orders, while downstream purchasing orders were contracted and restrained. The mainstream was emotionally bearish. Low-price transactions of rare earth products were so many and frequent that the price of PrNd was sensitively affected. The relatively low volume of PrNd made it move closer to low price. Based on the consensus that demand was generally low, inventory backlog had become the primary problem of upstream manufacturers.
The price of heavy rare earth had also been affected by the overall decline. There were more inventories in major enterprises in the South, with concentrated mainstream products such as Dy and Tb. However, the demand for them was not so popular or smooth in the market, the proportion of the transaction by bulk cargo holders had kept expanding. Flexible turnover should be done if hope was unseen in the short term. The transaction price presented a slight decline.
Though the turnover of rare earth had continued to decline this week, the industry's mentality was sensitive and subtle. Since the price of rare earth ore declined slower than that of oxides, the synchronous response was difficult to achieve. The theoretical cost of rare earth products kept increasing comparing to the previous costs, while the price of rare earth products, especially the price of PrNd products, was moving closer to their production cost price. Some people had changed their views on the market outlook. Although the recent trend was still regarded as consistently weak, people had already begun to think about the possibility of reversed price in the future.
Unlike general non-ferrous metals, the rare earth industry is highly influenced by policies, which is also one of the characteristics of the rare earth industry, that market regulation and policy factors have a common impact on it. Although market regulation has returned to a low level for some time to come, policy assistance does not lose the soil for its growth. (Rudow)
Listing price on July 15th from China Southern Rare Earth
Unit: 10,000RMB/ton (EXW price incl. VAT)
3. Tendency Chart (refer to Asian Metal)
