Rare earth Industry Faces Opportunities for High-Quality Development

The rare earth industry faces opportunities for high-quality development. The decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee have pointed out the direction and determined the goal for the future development of the domestic rare earth industry. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China is facing the following historic opportunities to promote high-quality development.

First, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial reforms have entered a period of in-depth expansion, providing opportunities for rare earth industry to move toward the mid-to-high end of the global value chain. Secondly, the market advantages of super-large economies are rare earths. The industry seizes opportunities and makes good use of opportunities to provide favorable conditions.

From the perspective of the world economic environment, China is currently in the best period of development since modern times, and the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. Rare earth is an indispensable and important element of new materials. The industrial development is facing the change of "internationalization of supply pattern", and international competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

Under such circumstances, the development of rare earth enterprises should adapt to market changes, insist on innovative development, and accelerate the adjustment and transformation. With the improvement of the level of research and development of new rare earth materials, it will develop from a big country of rare earth production to a big country of material manufacturing and application.

The focus of the future development of the industry is a "strong base", one of which is basic materials. In other words, manufacturing industry in the reform and transformation period will move from "Made in China" to "Intelligent Manufacturing in China", which requires the development of new energy, new materials, aerospace, electronic information, and biological applications that are widely used in rare earths. High-tech products such as technology, energy-saving and environmental protection are also important development directions for rare earth new materials.

The status and role of the rare earth industry during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period has been further improved, and its contribution to the country is also increasing. The "14th Five-Year Plan" period will be a critical period for the domestic rare-earth industry to increase research, achieve sustained and healthy development, and enter the mid to high-end industry. Electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, high-speed railways, industrial robots and other industries will usher in rapid development, and will also significantly boost the amount of rare earth high-end materials and products such as rare earth permanent magnet motors and power batteries.

In the future, rare earth consumption will form mainstream advantages in five new materials such as hydrogen storage and automobile exhaust purification, and related consumption is showing an increasing trend. In 2009, the domestic consumption of new rare earth materials was 38,000 tons, accounting for 55% of total consumption, and by 2019, its consumption had reached 92,000 tons, accounting for 67% of total rare earth consumption.

To achieve high-quality development of the rare earth industry, it is necessary to shift from “large amount” to “good”. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the industry should abandon the old road of extensive development, accelerate breakthroughs in key rare earth technologies, win the battle of advanced industry foundation and industrial chain modernization, continue to implement enterprise technological transformation, and promote the continuous conversion of new and old driving forces.