China's Rare Earth Dealers Hurt by Price Plunge

A sudden price plunge has caught China’s rare earth dealers holding big inventories bought at high prices, according to Shanghai’s National Business Daily.

The prices of some rare earths have plunged 10% during the past month. Rare earths being sold without invoices dropped even more, according to industry sources.

Lanthanum-cerium was being sold for 220,000 yuan ($34,488) per ton with invoice and 150,000 yuan ($23,515) without invoice.

A dealer in Baotou, Inner Mongolia who had bought thousands of tons of rare earth carbonate at 90,000 yuan ($14,109) per ton is unable to find a buyer.

The expectation of continuing price drops is prompting many buyers like major Japanese firms to draw on inventories in hopes of buying later at lower prices.

Many rare earth producers, on the other hand, have decided to sit on their inventories rather than selling them at the current prices. Speculation and a drop in demand during the past few months is seen as the cause of a drop in prices of a commodity which, just a year ago, was facing far more demand than available supplies could meet.

Last year when China had consolidated national control over rare earth production and tightened export restrictions, green-technology producers of wind turbines, electric motors and solar power cells had become alarmed at the possibility of having critical supplies choked off. In response the U.S., Japan and other major rare-earth users had begun developing alternatives sources, partly bringing about the current price drop.

So-called rare earths are, in fact, relatively common on the earth’s crust. China’s near monopoly on supplies resulted from its ability to extract and refine them at a lower cost than other nations while tolerating the resulting severe environmental degradation.