Prospect of cerium oxide application promising
----Interview with Taowei Wang
Sales Director
Deyang Hongyuan Glass Material& Accessories Co.
- Established in 2002, Deyang Hongyuan Glass Material & Accessories Co. is the first company that consumes cerium oxide 99.9%min to produce cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent in Sichuan province. With an annual production capacity of 2,500t, the company expects to produce around 1,200t of glass clarifying agent in 2022, without much change YoY.
- Asian Metal: Thanks for accepting interview by Asian Metal. Please introduce your company and your main business.
- Mr. Wang: Our company was founded in 2002 and was the first company that uses cerium oxide 99.9%min to produce cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent in Sichuan province. We own independent, advanced technology of cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent production after the development of 20 years. We tried to develop new business over the past years and also have deep processing of glass fiber business and produce glass reflective beads. Our company owns an annual production capacity of 2,500t of glass clarifying agent and 1,500t of other glass related products at present.
- Asian Metal: What rare earth products are needed to be consumed in the production of glass production? Which part are these rare earth products applied in?
- Mr. Wang: The production of glass products mainly need to consume cerium oxide 99.9%min and lanthanum oxide 99.9%min. Cerium oxide 99.9%min is mainly applied in glass coloring, decolorization, clarification, radiation resistance, etc. Lanthanum oxide 99.9%min could improve the optical performance of glass.
- Asian Metal: What are the advantages of cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent? How about the current annual consumption volume of cerium oxide 99.9%min of China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent industry?
- Mr. Wang: As an additive in the production of glass clarifying agent, cerium oxide 99.9%min owns advantages of environmentally friendliness, high economic benefits and so on. In the production of glass decolorization, cerium oxide 99.9%min owns the high economic and social benefits. Current China’s glass clarifying agent annual output is approximately 150,000t, which needs to consume around 15,000t of cerium oxide 99.9%min, without much change YoY. The spread of COVID dragged China’s glass clarifying agent industry this year.
- Asian Metal: China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min prices showed downtrend so far this year. The current Chinese cerium oxide 99.9%min mainstream prices moved down to RMB7,200-7,500/t (USD1,012-1,055/t) EXW D/P, a decline of around 16% from early this year. What do you see as the main reason of the price decline?
- Mr. Wang: In my opinion, the climbing NdFeB magnet output encouraged China’s rare earth separation plants to increase production, which led to climbing cerium oxide 99.9%min output. Taking the rare earth concentrate in Inner Mongolia for example, it contains 5.1%, 16.6% and 50% of praseodymium, neodymium and cerium respectively. It means that when one ton of PrNd oxide is produced, around three tons of cerium oxide 99.9%min would be produced at the same time. Baotou Steel Rare Earth Group’s rare earth ore mandatory plan in 2022 increased to 141,650t which contains around 20,000t of cerium oxide 99.9%min, up by 41,300t compared with 100,350t in 2021. Dragged by abundant supply, China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min prices slid over the past months.
- Asian Metal：How do you forecast China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min price trend in Q4?
- Mr. Wang: I predicted that China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min mainstream prices would hover at RMB6,800-7,200/t (USD956-1,012/t) EXW D/P in this Q4. Although the supply is abundant, I don’t think current prices have much room to go down. My suppliers disclosed that they already have difficulties in gaining margins at current price levels.
- Asian Metal: What’s your prediction of the demand outlook of cerium oxide 99.9%min in glass clarifying agent industry in the coming two years?
- Mr. Wang: Given advantages of environmental friendlinessy, high economic benefits and low prices of cerium oxide 99.9%min, I hold an optimistic attitude towards the development prospect of China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent industry. The government pays great attention to improve the environmental protection performance of cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent, while adding cerium oxide 99.9%min could help realize the target. I forecasted that the demand for cerium oxide 99.9%min from China's glass clarifying agent industry would move up gradually with an annual growth rate of 5-7% in the coming two years.
- Asian Metal: What’s the current position of China's cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent industry in the global market?
- Mr. Wang: China’s cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent industry owns leading position in the global market. China’s current production capacity of cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent is higher than those of Europe and United States and reaches 300,000t, accounting for about 50% of global cerium oxide 99.9%min glass clarifying agent annual production capacity.
- Asian Metal: Thanks for your excellent sharing. Wish Deyang Hongyuan Glass Material & Accessories Co. a prosperous business!
- Mr. Wang: Thank you! Wish you every success in your business.
