This week, the overseas rare earth market remained stable overall. Quotes for cerium oxide, lanthanum oxide, Pr-Nd oxide, dysprosium and terbium oxides, and corresponding metals on FOB/CIF terms were largely steady. The mild adjustments in China’s domestic prices had not yet been transmitted outside China, with sluggish trading and continued shrinkage in deliveries. On the project front, the focus was on building non-China supply chains in the West: Australia’s Iluka Eneabba refinery secured a A$1.65 billion federal non-recourse loan and signed a four-year, 1,200 mt magnetic material rare earth offtake agreement with an unnamed global automaker; US-based Energy Fuels planned to acquire German magnetic material producer VAC for $1.9 billion, complemented by a combined $1.45 billion dual-line loan from the US Strategic Capital Office and the Department of Defense to expand capacity at its White Mesa facility; Canada’s Ucore shipped NdPr oxide samples with 99.5% purity for downstream qualification; in South America, Aclara received environmental approval for its Penco project in Chile; local processing projects in Nigeria and South Africa also advanced simultaneously.

Woodside Energy has signed a gas sale and purchase agreement with Alcoa of Australia to supply 31.1 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas from 2027 to 2030. The gas will be delivered to Alcoa’s alumina refineries in Western Australia, helping secure energy supply for one of the region’s key industrial sectors. Alumina is the primary raw material used in aluminium production, making reliable energy supply critical to maintaining stable output. Woodside said the agreement strengthens its long-term partnership with Alcoa and supports energy security for Western Australian industry. In 2025, Woodside supplied approximately 90.3 PJ of domestic gas, accounting for around 21% of the state’s total gas supply. Market participants expect the deal to improve cost predictability, reduce the risk of production disruptions and support the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, including the aluminium sector.

Andromeda Metals has commenced commissioning of its high-purity alumina (HPA) pilot plant, marking another step toward commercial production using its Great White kaolin resource and proprietary processing technology. The pilot plant will operate on a continuous production basis through the third quarter of 2026 and provide key technical data for future feasibility studies and project development. The company plans to produce commercial-grade 4N HPA samples in the second half of 2026 for customer qualification testing, a critical step before securing supply agreements. Previous laboratory work achieved HPA purity levels of 99.9985%. The pilot program will also assess the recovery potential of by-products such as amorphous silica and gallium, which could provide additional revenue streams. Andromeda aims to establish an alternative high-purity alumina supply chain serving advanced applications including electronics, energy storage and specialty materials.

Morningstar analyst Phelix Lee noted in a report that capital expenditure by leading memory chip makers may further increase this year and next. This growth is largely driven by newly negotiated long-term supply agreements with clients, which Morningstar believes contain terms conducive to sustaining stable profit margins and imply that clients have assumed higher financial commitments. As a result, memory chip capacity growth could be very robust, especially in the DRAM and HBM segments.

Recently, AIKO and Tigon Power, a renowned energy development and operation company in the Philippines, officially held a signing ceremony. The two parties announced that they have reached a module supply agreement for the SAPANG 173MW large-scale ground-mounted PV power plant project in Pampanga Province, Philippines. According to the agreement, AIKO will supply the entire project with high-efficiency ABC modules, leveraging advanced PV technology to support the Philippines' green energy transition.

Chalco Zhengzhou Research Institute has actively responded to the requirements of Chalco Group's "3+4+4+4" scientific and technological innovation system, closely aligned with the "four special strengths" objectives and the "Digital-Intelligent New Chalco" development direction, and successfully developed the seventh-generation aluminum electrolysis pot control system. The system has achieved breakthroughs in key technical areas such as intelligent crust breaking, current distribution optimization, and online monitoring. By innovating material balance and energy balance algorithms, it has significantly enhanced three core capabilities: real-time perception of operating conditions, intelligent decision-making response, and precise control. In industrial application, the new-generation pot control system has demonstrated notable advantages: the precision of alumina concentration control has been substantially improved, effectively ensuring the long-term stable operation of electrolysis pots; current efficiency has achieved a breakthrough increase, providing key technical equipment support for aluminum enterprises to realize stable and high production as well as reduced energy consumption. Recently, Chalco Zhengzhou Research Institute reached a strategic cooperation with a key enterprise in the Xinjiang region and signed a supply agreement for 240 pot control systems, a move that will further accelerate the intelligent transformation of the aluminum electrolysis industry.