Highlights
- Rare earth scrap prices remain elevated, with key materials like Pr-Nd, dysprosium, and terbium maintaining high trading ranges.
- Market shows tension between upstream suppliers and downstream processors, creating a fragile equilibrium with divergent price expectations.
- Global decarbonization efforts are driving demand for recycled rare earth materials.
- Transparency and sourcing dynamics remain critical challenges.
In its latest weekly review, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reports that rare earth scrap prices remain elevated and stable, fueled by continued strength in the oxide market. Prices for key recycled materials—Pr-Nd (472–477 RMB/kg), dysprosium (1,610–1,621 RMB/kg), and terbium (5,439–5,495 RMB/kg)—have held firm, while gadolinium and holmium also maintained high trading ranges.
Trading volume rose modestly as inquiries increased, yet a notable buyer-seller standoff has emerged, with downstream processors pushing back against cost pressures and some upstream holders choosing to wait amid price expectations.
‘Risk of Instability’?
This tension reflects deeper instability in the recycled rare earth supply chain. While scrap circulation has improved, magnetic material producers are reluctant to sell at current levels, betting on further gains.
Meanwhile, downstream manufacturers, already squeezed by rising ore and raw material prices, are balking at current price points, raising questions about the short-term elasticity of demand and the sustainability of the current price plateau. For now, a fragile market equilibrium has formed, but both upstream and downstream are operating with divergent price expectations and limited transparency, according to the China-based media.
Missing Data
Critically, SMM’s update offers no data on regional sourcing dynamics, environmental compliance, or the quality differentials in recycled materials—factors that will be central to international buyers evaluating recycled REE feedstocks as part of their ESG and circular economy strategies. With global decarbonization efforts driving up demand for NdFeB magnets and heavy rare earths, any misalignment between raw material prices and downstream margins could spark renewed volatility.
Rare Earth Exchanges continues to monitor this dynamic closely as China’s scrap supply chain navigates a high-cost, low-trust environment.
Source: Shanghai Metals Market (opens in a new tab) (SMM), June 5, 2025
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