This week, the domestic praseodymium-neodymium oxide market experienced narrow fluctuations, with prices remaining relatively stable overall while market sentiment saw minor shifts. Early in the week, firm pricing intentions from upstream separation plants and just-in-time procurement from large enterprises helped improve trading sentiment temporarily, prompting sellers to test higher offers and pushing prices slightly upward. However, persistent weakness in end-user demand and limited new orders from downstream magnetic material companies led to a generally pessimistic outlook on near-term consumption. As a result, downstream metal producers showed little enthusiasm for procurement, with price acceptance clearly constrained. When offers exceeded 720,000 RMB/ton, buying interest dropped significantly, and actual transactions faced resistance. Without sufficient momentum, prices eventually retreated to around 710,000 RMB/ton, forming a pattern of initial gains followed by a pullback. From a supply-demand perspective, some upstream separation plants are currently undergoing temporary suspensions or production cuts due to environmental inspections or maintenance, leading to a certain degree of supply contraction that provides underlying support for prices. Meanwhile, downstream demand remains weak, with no notable improvement in end-user consumption, leaving the market without strong positive catalysts. Overall, the market is characterized by weakness on both the supply and demand sides, with intense game-playing between upstream and downstream participants. Sellers show limited willingness to concede on prices, while buyers maintain a cautious wait-and-see approach, with actual transactions primarily driven by essential needs. In the short term, the praseodymium-neodymium oxide market is expected to continue in this stalemate, with ongoing tussling between the two sides and prices likely to move within a narrow range, with limited room for significant upward or downward movement.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Rare Earth Prices Rose Across the Board After the Holiday, Market Trading Showed Signs of Recovery] The supply of Pr-Nd oxide remained tight, and most industry participants held optimistic expectations for the future market. Although post-holiday procurement activity did not show significant improvement, suppliers maintained relatively high quotations. As of today, the price of Pr-Nd oxide was further raised to 885,000-890,000 yuan/mt.

Brazil Rare Earths (BRE) has intersected ore bodies with total rare earth oxide (TREO) grades as high as 35.3% during step-out drilling at the Alto Hill deposit in the Rocha Project. At a depth of 115 meters, a 28-meter intersection graded 19.4%. Key elements included praseodymium-neodymium oxide at 5.96% and heavy rare earth dysprosium-terbium oxide at 0.305%, accompanied by high-value minerals such as niobium (1.7%) and scandium. Drilling has extended the ore body along strike to 1.2 kilometers and identified parallel ore bodies, indicating the area is becoming a world-class rare earth cluster. The company holds an inferred resource of 25.2 million mt (TREO grade 1%). Its low-temperature acid treatment process achieves a rare earth recovery rate of 97%.

The market quotation for praseodymium-neodymium oxide is in the range of 880,000 - 890,000 yuan/tonne, representing an increase of approximately 35,000 yuan/tonne compared to pre-holiday levels, a rise exceeding 4.12%. This marks a staggering 98% increase year-on-year. The quotation for praseodymium-neodymium metal stands at 1.07 - 1.08 million yuan/tonne, up by 50,000 yuan/tonne (4.88%) from pre-holiday prices, also reflecting a 95% year-on-year increase.

Last week, the overseas rare earth market exhibited distinct characteristics, including accelerated exploration of futures financialization, diversified development of global resource projects, deepened supply chain strategies in major consumer countries, progress in alternative technology R&D, and continuous expansion of international cooperation networks. Next week, as China enters the Chinese New Year holiday, overseas markets will maintain this pace of advancement.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Pr-Nd Prices Remain High, Downstream Procurement Activities Decrease] This week, the market quotation for Pr-Nd oxide remained high. Suppliers held optimistic expectations for the future market and were unwilling to sell at low prices. However, downstream buyers gradually began holidays and halted procurement, leading to a noticeable decline in the actual trading activity of Pr-Nd oxide. As of today, the price of Pr-Nd oxide fluctuated and rose to 747,000-753,000 yuan/mt.