Resumen de Rare earths stockpiling in China leads to upward price pressure

Industrial Minerals

• Praseodymium-neodymium oxide has jumped from Chinese renminbi (Rmb) 310,000/tonne ($47,554/tonne*) to Rmb 315,000 tonne ($48,321/tonne), and dysprosium oxide has risen from Rmb 1.3m/tonne ($199,420/tonne) to 1.32m/tonne ($202,488/tonne), while a number of other groups have seen price increases of up to 20%.

  "Absolutely it's a price spike (...) Look at uranium. Look at rare earths," said another source. "In each case you had the narrative of supply not being there, while demand was booming, and look what happened." "In early 2015, MTI announced a strategic realignment of its South African chromite business through a partnership with Glencore that would generate improvements in quality, efficiency and cost. Part of this strategy was to take advantage of Glencore's manufacturing capability. As this partnership has progressed, MTI is now winding down its chromite operations in South Africa," the company told IM.