- On 18 November, 2016, Melvin Hill, the rare earth dept. manager of G.E. Chaplin Inc., visited Asian Metal. Eric Qiu, analyst of Asian Metal, warmly welcomed him. They two talked about the rare earth market broadly and deeply.
From left: Eric Qiu, Melvin Hill
- To begin with, Melvin enquired about the price increases of Chinese PrNd, lanthanum and cerium products in recent weeks. Eric explained that owing to the continuously low level prices of Chinese rare earth products, most major plants suffered losses so far this year. As a result, the big rare earth groups reduced their sales and outputs, and then raised their offers. In addition, the rising prices were also affected by the increasing price trend of commodities and major metal products, the strictly regulation on private ore made by China’s MIIT since mid-October and rising prices of ion rare earth concentrate and the NdFeB magnet waste.
- Later, Melvin asked about the rare earth national storage and the cracking down on private ores. He conveyed that he sold about 200 tons of cerium oxide 99.9%min and 120 tons of lanthanum oxide 99.9%min so far this year. Besides, the company also manages yttrium, erbium, praseodymium oxides and LaCe mischmetal, dysprosium, gadolinium, yttrium and neodymium metal products. Melvin also revealed that the European and American market went weakly and softly due to the sluggish macro-economy conditions. While some companies used the rare earth products into new areas because of rare earths’ low price. Additionally, Melvin noted that some companies are looking to expand the applications of rare earth products.
- Established in 1988, as a manufacturer’s representative/sales agency, G.E. Chaplin has grown into a global specialty chemical distributor. Except for rare earth products, the company serves the paint, inks, plastics, lubricants, petroleum catalyst and powdered metallurgy industries and owns warehouses located in Somerset, New Jersey, Baltimore, Maryland and Houston, Texas.
