Rare Earths to Support Emerging Industries in China

China is not only the largest rare earths production country but also the world's largest consumer of rare earths. According to the "Panorama Atlas of China's Rare Earth Industry in 2019", the consumption is about 57% of the global consumption. Next is Japan, which accounts for about 21% of global consumption.

In June of this year, Chinese factory activities set the fastest growth rate since December 2019, and the emerging industries will become the main factor driving the growth of rare earth demand. Since late June, although the domestic light rare earth market prices have fallen sharply, for example, the price of neodymium oxide has fallen from 380,000 yuan/ton to 304,500 yuan/ton, but the medium and heavy rare earth market has been affected by supply and demand, and the price is relatively firm.

At present, the manufacturing, infrastructure, and medicine are the main consumption areas of rare earths. China has many types of rare earth resources, large reserves, and rich types of rare earth minerals. It is the only country that can provide all 17 rare earth metals. There are many indications that almost every 3 to 5 years.

In terms of 5G technology, 5G technology can help rare earth companies' production operations become more flexible and efficient, as well as reduce maintenance costs. At the same time, it will also enable rare earth companies to enhance the use of automation, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and the "smart factory". 5G is not a sudden advance or mutation of a certain technology, but an innovative integration of a series of new technologies. Apart from the United States, China has already taken the initiative in 5G technology.

5G mobile phone camera uses rare earth lanthanum glass, also known as lanthanide optical glass, which contains more rare earth lanthanum oxide (La2O3) in its composition, which has the characteristics of high refractive index and low dispersion. It is used to make optoelectronic products. The new high-quality optical glass material necessary for reading and writing lenses and imaging lenses can effectively expand the field of view of the lens, improve the imaging quality of the instrument, and make the lens smaller and lighter.

In the field of new energy vehicles, the production and sales of new energy vehicles and new vehicles accounted for 20% of the original plan. Increase to 25%. By 2025, China will increase the sales of new energy vehicles from 20% announced in 2017 to 25%.

The development of new energy vehicles is bound to become the general trend of the future development of the automobile industry, and the development of this industry is bound to drive the vigorous development of a large number of related industries such as the rare earth industry. Especially for hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles, miniaturization and high-power drive motors are necessary, and now these motors use a large amount of rare earths.

In the field of medicine, rare earth elements and their compounds have been widely used in the fields of medicine and biochemistry in recent years due to their special physical and chemical properties. For example, the Baotou Rare Earth R&D Center developed a rare earth chemical shift reagent, which is mainly used as a consumable for MRI equipment to improve the signal clarity and signal-to-noise ratio of MRI systems Effect.

Industry insiders analyze that in the future development of China seven strategic emerging industries, almost every industry will use rare earths, and this demand is often irreplaceable. In terms of quantity and volume, the future industry represented by emerging industries may be the smallest part of my country’s industrial structure, but from the perspective of prospects, cultivating future industries is to seize opportunities for the industrialization of cutting-edge technologies.

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