The Chinese rare earth market witnessed slow buying and soft prices in 2018. China increased the rare earth mandatory plan from 105,000t in 2017 to 120,000t in 2018. Restricted by the environmental inspections, the Chinese rare earth ore supply decreased, the end industries operate at low operation rate and producers' production cost increased. Discouraged by the abundant supply and weak demand, rare earth prices rides on a downtrend in general. Although there are some elating news about crackdown on illegal production and stockpiling, the Chinese rare earth market remained dim in 2018 due to the slack economy. Can we expect a turnaround in the Chinese rare earth industry in 2019?
The overseas rare earth industry witnessed enormous changes in 2018. Following the development of rare earth projects in North Australia, North America, South East and Africa, imported ores become the new forces. An Austria corporation began to price heavy rare earth concentrate since September 2018, which means China is not the unique heavy rare earth producer. The global rare earth supply chain changed dramatically with China's rare earth reserves declined to around 40%. The appearance of rare earth separation plants in Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations suggests the shift trend of rare earth industrial from China to Southeast countries. Furthermore, Lynas's light rare earth oxides output increased in 2018, so Chinese rare earth enterprises will confront new challenges. The European rare earth market was dominant by a few REACH qualified companies after this May.
The downstream industries were flat in most 2018. As the key growth driver of rare earth, permanent magnet market was oversupplied in 2018, while some middle-sized enterprises continued enlarging production, which resulted in more intense competition among magnet producers. A few small-sized companies went bankrupted. What impacts will the change of China's new energy auto subsidy policy and U.S.'s $200 billion tariff list bring to permanent magnet industry in 2019? What's opportunity and challenge will rare earth catalyst industry face in 2019? China's polishing powder output decreased in 2018. Will this change in 2019? Whether the demand for scandium products from Fuel cells, aluminum alloys and targets industries will pick up further in 2019?
In order to provide a platform for participants from both China and overseas to share opinions about rare earth price trend and supply & demand pattern, Asian Metal is going to hold the 11th International Rare Earth Summit in Qingdao, Shandong on May 9th-10th, 2019. The summit will provide an opportunity for industry elite from around the world to face to face exchange ideas, meet customers and join in industry discussions. All industrial elite is welcome to the summit for joint discussion.
