PikeResearch: New Energy Greatly Promotes China's Rare Earth Industry

According to the latest report of PikeResearch, the demand for rare earth in the new energy technology field will break the mark of 12,000 tons to reach 12,920 tons in 2017 from about 9,000 tons in 2011, indicating rapid development of China's rare earth hydrogen storage material industry.

It's understood that China now provides more than 90% of the global production of rare earth. In particular, Chinese policies encouraging domestic consumption of new rare earth materials have drawn continuous attention of the international market. Since 2010, rare earth prices have risen sharply due to the implementation of new export policies in China. Therefore, rare earth materials are considered to have the highest supply risk in some fields of major new energy technologies, such as rare earth hydrogen storage batteries, wind turbine generators, electric vehicles and energy-saving lamps.

The PikeResearch report believed that Ni-MH batteries and wind turbines for hybrid vehicles will be the two industries with the largest demand for rare earth. Among the eight rare earth materials analyzed, the report stated that in 2017, the new energy industry will have the largest demand for yttrium, about 6,088 tons, followed by cerium (2,441 tons) and lanthanum (1,867 tons) and will have less demand for other metals such as neodymium, praseodymium, europium, terbium and dysprosium, but the overall consumption will still be considerable.