There are many kinds of rare earth alloys, including rare earth magnesium alloy, rare earth aluminum alloy, rare earth iron alloy and rare earth copper alloy. Rare earth ferroalloy refers to the alloy material made of iron and rare earth elements as raw materials. Rare earth ferroalloy has the advantages of strong oxidation resistance, good wear resistance, good corrosion resistance, good magnetism, etc., and it is widely used in military industry, automobile manufacturing, wind power generation, metal smelting, magnetic materials and other fields.
According to the different types of rare earth elements contained, rare earth iron alloys can be divided into composite rare earth iron alloys and binary rare earth iron alloys. Binary rare earth ferroalloy is the mainstream product of rare earth ferroalloy market, including gadolinium ferroalloy (GdFe), lanthanum ferroalloy (LaFe), dysprosium ferroalloy (DyFe), cerium ferroalloy (CeFe) and other types. At present, China’s dysprosium-ferroalloy production technology has been developed and mature, and its output has maintained a long-term growth trend, which will provide favorable conditions for the development of rare earth ferroalloy industry.
China’s rare earth ferroalloy production to meet the local market demand at the same time, exported to overseas. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs of China, the export volume of rare earth ferroalloy (RE≤10%) in China from January to August 2023 reached 1500.3 tons, and the export amount reached 36.228 million US dollars. Turkey, India and Thailand are the main exporters of rare earth ferroalloys in China. In recent years, driven by national policies, China’s rare earth export control has gradually tightened, and it is expected that the export scale of rare earth ferroalloys will decline in the next period of time.
According to the “2023-2028 China rare earth ferroalloy industry market in-depth research and development prospects forecast Report” released by the New Thought Industry Research Center, rare earth ferroalloy is widely used, and the field of magnetic materials is its largest demand side. China is a major producer of permanent magnet materials, and its output has long been in the world’s leading position. Rare earth ferroalloy is the raw material for Ndfeb magnetic materials, accounting for its main production costs. According to the statistics of China Rare Earth Industry Association, in the first half of 2022, China’s sintered NdFeb blank production reached 116,000 tons, an increase of 15%; Bonded Ndfeb production reached 4,490 tons, an increase of 2%. With the growth of application demand, the market share of rare earth ferroalloys will further increase.
China’s major producers of rare earth ferroalloys include Baotou Steel Rare Earth (Group) High-tech Co., LTD., Guangsheng Nonferrous Metals Co., LTD., China Minmetals Corporation Co., LTD., Antai Technology Co., LTD. Benefiting from the continuous efforts of local enterprises, China’s rare earth ferroalloy technology maturity continues to improve, and the number of market participants has further increased.
Industry analysts said that rare earth ferroalloy technology maturity is high and the application field is wide, occupying a large share of the rare earth alloy market. In terms of subdivided products, the market demand for binary rare earth ferroalloy continues to grow, driving the boom of the rare earth ferroalloy industry to further improve. After years of development, China has become a rare earth ferroalloy production and export power, the future with technological progress, the industry will gradually develop towards high quality.
