Chinese Rare Earth Aluminum & Magnesium Alloys markets embrace new development opportunities

Asian Metal: Hello, Mr. Zou! Thank you for accepting this interview of Asian Metal. Could you please introduce your company and your main business briefly?

Mr. Zou: Xinyu Xinchuang Alloy Material Co., Ltd. was newly established by Wang, the General Manager, and me in February, 2019. Our main business is reduced rare earth metals, such as yttrium metal, gadolinium metal, erbium metal, etc. In addition, we also engage in magnesium and aluminium based rare earth alloys. Currently, our annual production capacities for single rare earth metal and rare earth alloys are 80t and 120t respectively.

Asian Metal: Thank you for your introduction. Would you please give us a brief introduction of your career?

Mr. Zou: I have engaged in the rare earth metal and alloy industry since 2007. My career started from Ganzhou Sanxin New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., then Gan Feiteng Light Alloys Co., Ltd. and current Xinyu Xinchuang Alloy Materials Co., Ltd.

Asian Metal: During this June, Chinese yttrium oxide 99.999%min and gadolinium oxide 99.5%min prices increased sharply. Have the related downstream yttrium and gadolinium metal prices increased accordingly? What do you think about the sharply rising prices of rare earth raw materials in short time?

Mr. Zou: The sharply rising prices of raw materials resulted in big difficulties in our production and management. For example, I last purchased 6t yttrium oxide 99.999%min at about RMB19,500/t (USD2,838/t) EXW D/P in late June, up by RMB3,000/t (USD437/t) from my last purchase of 8t one month ago. However, in spite of more than 10% price increase of yttrium oxide 99.999%min, we did not adjust yttrium metal 99.9%min price in order to release the worries from downstream consumers due to long-term contracts.

What I want to stress is that, the sharply increasing prices led to the anxious and panic psychology from downstream consumers, thus they were hesitate to purchase or even delay buying, especially in some new materials industries. I claimed on the prices of raw materials return to the normal track or else the sharp price increase or decline would harm its healthy development.

Asian Metal: Mr. Zou, as you have engaged in the market of yttrium metal, gadolinium and related rare earth alloys, would you like to share us the production capacity and market status of rare earth magnesium alloy?

Mr. Zou: The demand for materials that you noted above increases year by year, but the downstream consumption is still at a low level. I estimate Chinese yttrium metal 99.9%min outputs would be about 150t in 2019, as well as 80t for yttrium magnesium alloy and 100t for yttrium aluminium alloy.

Asian Metal: What's the mainly application area for rare earth magnesium and rare earth aluminum alloys?

Mr. Zou: Adding some particular rare earth elements into magnesium and aluminum alloys could promote the tensile strength, yield strength and elongation of materials, as well as the high-temperature resistance and corrosion resistance of materials. Currently, the rare earth magnesium alloys are mainly used for military and aerospace industries. It also has a bright prospect in the light weight of vehicles in the near future.

Asian Metal: What opportunities do you think the rare earth magnesium and aluminum alloys will embrace?

Mr. Zou: We have engaged in rare earth magnesium area for more than ten years, during which we watched the material develop from laboratory to application fields step by step. We believe that rare earth magnesium alloys would be used as not only functional materials but also structural materials by taking use of some mature experiences from foreign countries, intensifying our efforts in scientific research and technological breakthroughs and combining with our own advantages. Therefore, there will be a boom in the magnesium alloy industry.

Asian Metal: Xinyu Xinchuang is co-established by Mr. Wang and you. Why choose Xinyu as the location? How about your production quotas? Do you have some new development plans in the coming year?

Mr. Zou: Considering convenient transportation, abundant industrial foundation, high-quality industrial technical workers and a series of preferential policies, we decided to build the new plant in Xinyu. I hope our new company would become more precise and stronger in Xinyu.

By the end of June, 2019, We had equipped four vacuum induction melting furnace (VIMF) of 35kg for single rare earth metal production and one VIMF of 100kg for rare earth alloys. According to our plan, we should have equipped eight VIMF of 35kg, one VIMF of 100kg and one VIMF of 150kg by the end of the year.

Asian Metal: Recent years, both governments and industry participants call on extending industrial chain and increasing the added value for rare earth products. How do you feel this in practice?

Mr. Zou: Over the past several years, the added value for single rare earth products was not much, and most small sized enterprises trapped in to the chaos market prices due to relatively low technical threshold. Based on current rare earth aluminium and magnesium alloy, we are cooperating with downstream enterprises to explore more species of rare earth intermediate alloys.

Asian Metal: Would you like to share us some feelings on the market exploration and production?

Mr. Zou: Form the aspect of production management, we put forward higher requests and more strict control targets, and thus we win the recognition from consumers. On the base of stricter production management, clients are willing to signed more orders and have stronger willingness to co-explore new types of alloy materials.

Asian Metal: Asian Metal is the authoritative platform for market information, and also provides the reference prices for rare earth industry. Could you give us some suggestions about our service? Thank you!

Mr. Zou: Asian Metal has provided the detailed price reference and sufficient market information and data over the past 20 years. I admire the professional ability and dedication of Asian Metal and hope Asian Metal continue maintaining the leading position.

Asian Metal: Thanks, Mr. Zou! Asian Metal will carry your vision to provide the objective, professional and authoritative market information for the industry. Thanks again for your support and sharing! Wish you every success in your business!

Mr. Zou: Thank you! I wish Asian Metal better and better!