The rare earth market witnessed a rather poor performance throughout 2015. The glum global economy coupled with excessive supply of material, culminated in the global rare earth industry witnessing pitiable downstream demand and slow buying activity and therefore a dramatic slide in price. Market participants currently lack confidence in the market for the short term. So can we expect to see a turnaround in the global rare earth industry in 2016?
The Chinese rare earth market was dim in 2015. The excessive supply and extensive illegal mining activities continued to depress the market. Suppliers had difficulty in concluding deals and the competition among suppliers was fierce. The market kept seeing limited buying activities. Chinese Customs tariff Commission of the State Council announced to cancel rare earth export tariff on April 23 of 2015. It suggested the end of rare earth export tariff, which was carried out on November of 1st, 2006. Participants expected the cancelation of this rare earth export tariff would result in a active rare earth export market, however Chinese rare earth export market remained lethargic throughout 2015 and witnessed a continuously dropping price. Overseas importers held wait-and-see attitudes. Will the Chinese rare earth market revive itself at all in 2016?
The international rare earth market also suffered poor demand and sliding price in 2015 as a result of oversupply and economy depression. One of the major suppliers outside of China---Molycorp even filed for bankruptcy. Against the backdrop of shrinking global demand, what kind of opportunities and challenges are rare earth projects in the rest of the world likely to face? Faced with such fierce market competition, how might producers outside China improve their competitiveness?
Asian Metal is going to hold the 8th International Rare Earth Summit in Nanjing, Jiangsu of China on March 29-31th of 2016. We sincerely invite people from both at home and abroad, to meet with us there. Let us together identify the direction needed for a prosperous rare earth market.
