The prices of terbium oxide and dysprosium oxide drop slightly while neodymium oxide and praseodymium neodymium metal prices climb in the Chinese market in the middle of July.

Molybdenum market quotation in China: the prices of molybdenum concentrate, molybdenum oxide and molybdenum powder prices are in the downward trend owing to weak buying appetite and low trading activity. 

South Korea's SK Innovation Co Ltd (SKI), a supplier for Volkswagen and Ford Motors, plans to invest 6.6 billion to build a second battery plant in the US. The company and the Georgian government signed an investment contract of US$940 million (approximately RMB 6.6 billion). Construction of the plant with an annual capacity of 11.7 gigawatt-hours of batteries will begin in July in the southern state of Georgia with production aimed for 2023, the firm, already building its first factory there, said in a statement.

On tungsten and rare earth minerals, Kazakhstan plans to invest 2 billion US dollars for the exploration. The Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan recently stated that most of the resources being exploited in the country were proved during the Soviet period, and the output of some mining areas will be exhausted in the next 10 to 15 years. Therefore, the country plans to attract at least 2 billion US dollars for the exploration of domestic mineral resources. Besides oil and natural gas, the exploration objects may include tungsten, molybdenum, rare earth, and other metal minerals.

Tesla stated that it had signed a 2020 lithium battery pricing agreement with battery maker Panasonic for three years. The 2020 Pricing Agreement (effective as of April 1, 2020, until March 31, 2023) is about lithium-ion cells produced at its in Nevada (the cylindrical 2170-type used in Model 3, Model Y and energy storage systems).

Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

The ammonium paratungstate (APT) and tungsten carbide powder prices in the Chinese market continue to stabilize as the market is caught in wait-and-see atmosphere. Mainstream tungsten product prices mainly refer to the new guide prices from the tungsten associations. 

China rare earth price continues to mix in the week began on Monday July 13, 2020. Praseodymium oxide price declines slightly while neodymium oxide price edges higher. Now the whole market is weak and market trading is low. 

China molybdenum price remains weak adjustment due to continued weak consumer appetite, poor performance in the international market and limited good news from the countries. The production cost is hard to support sellers' strong rised mentality, but with the gradual end of the coronavirus, some industries are recovering slowly. 

With the improvement of lithium batteries technology, the railway vehicle industry has accelerated the development of vehicles that can run on batteries alone. Japan has recently launched a vehicle that runs on batteries, while in South Korea, Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating the development of a train that combines battery and hydrogen fuel technologies.

Li-ion battery plays a central role in the scientific and technological world, powering various devices such as smartphones and smart cars, and now a people in Japan who helped commercialize them says he has a way to cut mass production costs by 90 percent and significantly improve their safety. Hideaki Horie, who was responsible for battery research at Nissan Motor Co., established APB, a Tokyo-based company, in 2018 to make "all-polymer batteries."