Stop production can not save the rare earth

The arrogance of rare earth prices seems to have been curbed, but with the suspension of the production stoppage that began in August, the price of rare earths, which have already fallen, has returned slightly. Most industry insiders believe that the adjustment of rare earth prices is unavoidable under the background of market expectations.

However, the impact of rare earth price fluctuations on the downstream rare earth application industry has become a target of public criticism. The “China Business” reporter learned that although the six ministries and commissions inspections started in August were the most direct factor in the production and separation of smelting companies, most of them are still in production. The separation and smelting companies that join the cut-off ranks are actually fighting for prices.

Discontinuation of Production At the end of August, Ganzhou City, which has the world’s largest reserves of heavy rare earths, issued the “Circular on Release of Control Targets for Total Tungsten and Rare Earth Mining in the City of 2011” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”). (Handan Mining Pipe Word [2011] 〔〕 No. 160), put forward 7 measures to implement the national mining plan issued at the beginning of the target.

The “Notice” clearly requires that the Ganxian and Xinfeng County policies stop production. By the end of 2011, Ganxian County and Xinfeng County will completely suspend production. In addition to Ningdu County, which had previously ceased production, the 3 major rare earth mineral regions in Ganzhou have been completely shut down.

In fact, the large-scale production stoppage in Zhangzhou was a continuation of the northern rare earth practice. As early as June of this year, many rare earth enterprises in Baotou began to suspend production for rectification.

“Our company has been discontinued since July this year. On the one hand, it is the request of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In addition, our own environmental protection facilities are not up to standard and need to be rectified.” On September 6th, a rare earth entrepreneur from Baotou The reporter stated that a large number of companies face the test of life and death and no one dared to take it lightly.

The reporter learned that, in addition to environmental protection factors, more importantly, the indicators of rare earth mining and separation and smelting projects have not been implemented. According to a number of local industry sources, this year's annual production plan targets have all been used up, and the directive production plans of the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Industry and Information have become a piece of paper, and the risk of continuing production is extremely high. However, the data provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that from January to June 2011, the country's rare earth separation and smelting products were 62,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4%. The statistical data is far from the actual situation.

Earlier, during the Baotou Rare Earth Forum, many officials and scholars including Jia Yinsong, director of the Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Gan Yong, president of the China Rare Earth Society, said that for the year when the mining index has been used up, it must be strictly examined and not increased. The plan of the indicator.

On August 8, during the Third World Rare Earth Forum held in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and the Sixth Committee of the State Administration of Work Safety jointly issued a notice requesting that the production of rare earths be commenced on August 1. The special rectification and order-up operations have investigated and dealt with unplanned and over-planned production of rare earth mines and smelting and separation enterprises, and acquisitions and sales of illegally-mined rare earth mineral products.

Also at the end of August, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced the “Guide to the Verification of Rare Earth Enterprise Environmental Protection”, which involves all rare earth companies and includes separation and smelting enterprises in the restricted development category. Therefore, verification of such enterprises will be more stringent.

“After the Baotou meeting was over, we stopped production and all the regular manufacturers I knew had ceased production.” On September 7, Zhao Qingfang, minister of operations of Helong Liming Rare Earths Smelting Co., Ltd. in Longnan County, Jiangxi, told the reporter on the telephone that the company’s environmental protection measures have been in compliance. Requirements, but when to resume production depends on the situation in the industry. "We need raw materials, but now the mines are not mined, and the prices of rare earths are fluctuating."

The middle manufacturer waited for the reporter to learn from a number of rare earth separation and smelting enterprises in Quzhou that this round of production suspension had actually begun gradually since two months ago, and after mid-August, all formal enterprises had stopped production, and the rare earth industry in Zhangzhou entered. "Static period".

Regarding the reason for the suspension of production, the above-mentioned person in charge of the company believes that it is to deal with the inspections of the six ministries and commissions. “In the past, local governments actually did not control us. The so-called two mandatory plans are empty words.” In his view, the annual over-exploitation and Super smelting has become a habit.

"You have to ask me if this year's separation and smelting indicators have been exhausted. I cannot easily answer. I can only say that some of our own production plans have not been completed." The person in charge said that because it was not executed seriously in the past, Whether or not this year's planning indicators are reasonable is not considered. Now we must check, "What should be the specific amount? We think we should have a statement."

According to the data provided by the Commodity Data Business Group for this newspaper, in August, the prices of the remaining seven rare earth metals, except for the metal gallium, remained at a downward trend, among which the main eight rare earth products were lanthanum oxide. The largest drop in niobium oxide was 17.39% and 15.25% respectively. At the end of August, the prices of antimony oxide and niobium oxide were 950,000 yuan per ton and 1.25 million yuan per ton respectively.

Even though prices are falling, the entire rare earth market is not active. Liu Ruixing, a rare earth analyst at the business community, told the reporter that although most suppliers continue to lower their quotation, the wait-and-see atmosphere of rare earth buyers is strong and their willingness to purchase is not strong, resulting in a relatively small volume of rare earth market as a whole.

However, with the commencement of verification of this round of exports, environmental protection, and production indicators, most companies will stop production and market expectations may change. This is also the hope for many middlemen to wait and see, and is also the main reason for the separation of smelters to stop production. the reason.

Due to the high cost of rare earth raw materials before, “some isolated smelters that are in stock are unwilling to produce when the price of rare earth falls, and hope to be able to pressure the goods to avoid losing money and wait for a new stimulus policy.” One from Hebei Traders told reporters that the core of what we are now watching is national policy. “So we dare to put our goods in our hands.”

However, many downstream rare-earth application companies are more confident about the decline in the price of rare earths. On September 6, the reporter learned at the New Materials Exposition held in Harbin that NdFeB from the provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Jiangxi, etc , Luminescent material production companies have stopped production or converted, waiting for the stability of rare earth prices.

They believe that the market is expected to allow those who do not have smuggling channels to throw cargo, which will drive down the price of the entire rare earth. “September may be an inflection point, and we only have to wait.”

Policy cities or retreating from this round of rare earth price increases are reliant on policy, from mining, separation and smelting, to exports, to the recently-instructed method of mandatory production planning management, and rare earth special invoices, while regulating the rare earth market. It also stimulated resource prices.

“In the past two years, rare earths have been eating tonics and they are striving to turn gold from cabbage into gold. Now it seems that this goal has been achieved.” An expert told reporters that the rare earth industry itself needs to keep fit and it is time to get rid of dependence on policy. Now.

However, the current situation is that rare earth upstream companies “have more money in a year than the total of the past 10 years,” but downstream companies have stopped due to overburdening and converted production. Even if they have the ability to produce, they also do not follow the trend of prices. Clear and cut production and stop production.

Whether it is in Baotou or Bozhou, for the price of rare earth raw materials, corporate executives like to use the “value return” to explain the price of rare earth, but they also understand that the domestic downstream application industry cannot support the existing price for a long time. Policy can not relax.

“To rationally view the price of rare earths, the downstream industry has a process of adaptation.” On September 7, Gao Yunhu, deputy director of the Department of Raw Materials of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with reporters that many downstream industries are now low-value-added enterprises and are accustomed to using them. Cheap rare earth raw materials, "These companies need to be eliminated. We want to use precious rare earths in high-tech, high value-added areas."