----Interview with Qing Yang
General Manager
Sichuan Wonaixi New Material Technology Co., Ltd.
With an annual production capacity of 20,000t, Sichuan Wonaixi New Material Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the major rare earth salts producers in China. The company’s main products include polishing powder, grinding particles for CMP polishing fluid, rare earth oxides, ceric ammonium nitrate, rare earth hydroxide, rare earth nitrate, anhydrous chloride, rare earth fluoride, rare earth carbonate, and other high purity rare earth salts used as precursors for rare earth functional materials. The company produced about 15,000t of rare earth salts in 2023.
Asian Metal: Welcome to accept our interview, Mr. Yang. Please introduce your company and main business briefly.
Mr. Yang: Our company focuses on the R&D and production of rare earth function materials. Our main products include polishing powder, grinding particles for CMP polishing fluid, rare earth oxides, ceric ammonium nitrate, rare earth hydroxide, rare earth nitrate, anhydrous chloride, rare earth fluoride, rare earth carbonate, and other high purity rare earth salts used as precursors for rare earth functional materials.
Asian Metal: How about current China’s production capacity and output of rare earth salts over the past year?
Mr. Yang: Rare earth salts could be divided into two categories. One is the primary rare earth salt products produced by consuming rare earth ore. The other category is produced through downstream deep processing and these producers mainly locate in Sichuan, Shandong and Jiangxi provinces. China owns an annual production capacity of 30,000t of second category rare earth salts. In 2023, China’s second category rare earth salts output recorded about 25,000t, more than 15,000t were produced by our company.
Asian Metal: What’s the current production capacity and demand for ceric ammonium nitrate in China?
Mr. Yang: Ceric ammonium nitrate demand in China increased gradually over the past years. China’s ceric ammonium nitrate production capacity and demand recorded 10,000t and approximately 7,000t over the past year, an increase of 10% YoY.
Asian Metal: What’s the current main application areas of ceric ammonium nitrate? How about the demand trend?
Mr. Yang: Automobile exhaust catalyst, chip etching agent and pharmaceutical are the three main applications of ceric ammonium nitrate. Ceric ammonium nitrate demand from automobile exhaust catalyst industry accounts for 60-70% of the total ceric ammonium nitrate demand. The demand from automobile exhaust catalyst industry rose gradually over the past three years with a compound annual growth rate of around 10%. The ceric ammonium nitrate demand from chip etchers and pharmaceutical industries also moved up slowly over the past years.
Asian Metal: As far as I know, rare earth salts, including high purity cerium carbonate, cerium hydroxide, anhydrous lanthanum chloride, anhydrous cerium chloride, anhydrous neodymium chloride, etc., are widely applied in electronics and aerospace industries, military, petrochemical, advanced optical instruments, special glass ceramics and new materials and other fields. How about the rare earth salts demand from these industries over the past year?
Mr. Yang: Yes, high purity rare earth compounds are widely used in the electronics and aerospace industries, military, petrochemical, advanced optical instruments, special glass ceramics and new materials and other fields. But monomer consumption volume of rare earth from most of these industries is very small. In my opinion, the rare earth salts consumption volumes from all these industries record around 30,000t now.
Asian Metal: Which rare earth application fields saw fastest demand growth of rare earth salts over the past years?
Mr. Yang: The rare earth salts demand from metallurgical, petroleum and glass industries went up sharply over the past years with a compound annual growth rate of higher than 5% over the past years. The current consumption volume of rare earth salts from metallurgical, petroleum and glass industries accounts for 13-14%, 9-10% and 8-9% respectively of the total rare earth salts demand.
Asian Metal: What’s your prediction of rare earth salts demand outlook in the coming 2-3 years?
Mr. Yang: The development of rare earth application products with large end users, such as rare earth insulating glass and coatings for automotive and building exterior industries, would accelerate rare earth salts demand to climb exponentially. As far as I know, the development of rare earth insulating glass and coatings for automotive and building exterior industries have achieved practical results, and we are also actively cooperating with our downstream clients to test samples and develop research.
Asian Metal: Which rare earth products are consumed in the production of rare earth salts? How about the annual consumption volume?
Mr. Yang: We purchase carbonate and chloride of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium and yttrium to produce rare earth salts. Our annual consumption volumes of these rare earth products record around 10,000t, around 7,000t of these products are cerium carbonate.
Asian Metal: What’s current cerium carbonate 45%min prices? How do you predict the price trend in the second H2?
Mr. Yang: The current Chinese cerium carbonate 45%min mainstream prices hover at RMB6,250-6,350/t (USD891-905/t) EXW D/P, a sharp increase of around 30% from RMB4,800-5,000/t (USD661-688/t) early this year. In view the upward demand trend of rare earth salts, such as ceric ammonium nitrate, I predict that the Chinese cerium carbonate 45%min prices would climb in the coming months and would reach about RMB8,000/t (USD1,102/t) in this H2.
Asian Metal: Thanks for your excellent sharing! Wish your company a prosperous business!
Mr. Yang: Thank you for the interview! I wish Asian Metal flourishing day by day!
