Highlights
- Asian Metal is a Beijing-based company with significant influence on rare earth element pricing, contributing to China’s market dominance.
- The company provides comprehensive metals market information, including daily price updates for over 5,000 products across 30 countries.
- While Asian Metal is influential, China’s overall control of rare earth supply and government policies play a larger role in global pricing.
Few understand that in the rare earth elements and minerals market one obscure firm apparently wields substantial influence over much of the pricing process, an incredibly opaque and nuanced situation. This firm plus a confluence of other factors and forces all serve to further bolster and reinforce China’s dominance in the market for these commodities both at the source and downstream.
Technically, not one Chinese company has the clout, reach and power to directly set prices for rare earth minerals and metals for example. Most certainly China plays a dominant role in the global rare earth market, and many Chinese companies, including those involved in mining, refining, and trading, influence global prices. China's dominance stemsfrom its significant rare earth production capacity, with the countrysupplying around 60-70% of the world's rare earths and controlling a large portion of the refining capacity. As Rare Earth Exchanges was launched to chronicle, China’s industrial policy over the last few decades was designed for the nation to absolutely dominate this critical sector.
But it also turns out that there is one company with extraordinary influence, maybe even the powers to help make the prices for rare earth metals for example.
That firm is Asian Metal (opens in a new tab) and they provide metals market information, including pricing, import and export data, and historical trends. They publish daily updates on over 5,000 metals product prices in over 30 countries.
What’s the company’s background?
Founded in 2001 by professionals within the metals industry, Asian Metal launched with the goal of providing comprehensive metals market pricing and coverage. The company offers users access to metals market pricing, dataand statistics, and news across all regions.
Asian Metal is recognized for its unique, accurate, and up-to-date information as a premium service in over 200 countries to more than 200,000 metals industry specialists. Several international news organizations including Xinhua News, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg have established strategic cooperation with Asian Metal to provide their customers with high-end financial information terminals and Asian Metal's unbeatable metals market information.
Asian Metal’s benchmark metal prices are regularly used by companies across industries to set prices as an authoritative, third-party, and transparent market guide. As a result of the accuracy and reliability of prices, customers of the service continue to grow with new users signing on each day.
According to a few individuals in the industry who have spoken with Rare Earth Exchanges on condition of anonymity “Asian Metal’s position is instrumental in establishing pricing for these products.”
Serving international metals market analysis andpricing index company with headquarters in Beijing, the company now has offices in China and to the United Kingdom and United States.
Over the years, Asian Metal has developed into a leading metal markets intelligence provider, supplying up-to-date analysis on market trends and price indications. Currently, the company has set up 12 information categories including Base Metals, Minor Metals, Ferroalloys, Rare Earths, Precious Metals, Scrap Metals, Refractories, Industrial Minerals, Steel Raw Materials, Carbon Steel, Stainless & Special. Each category provides different categories of information consisting of Domestic News (China), Regional Price(Domestic Price), Research Reports, International News, International Prices, Manufacturers News, Enterprise Recommendation, Statistical data, Analysis & Forecast, Weekly Review, Monthly Review, Industry Comments and International Trade.
By 2011, Asian Metal provided international metals market analysis, including their market price, and widely used international trade platform toserve over 100,000 companies within nonferrous metals, steel, energy andmineral industries. With the expansion into the European, African, and North and South American markets, the company now provides its services to almost 200 countries worldwide.
The company’s footprint as far as employees is not that large. At least as measured by LinkedIn only 33 associates associate with the company. Of course, there could be many more employees in China that do not use that professional social network.
They are privately held and do not share any ownership data.
What’s the company’s offering?
With over 20 years in providing information services as well as historical pricing trends, the company’s professionals offer analysis on over 60 metal and nonmetal minerals with over 1,000 metal-based products.
With daily publications covering 40 countries in English and Chinese, they cover over 400 world metal market news articles; with daily updates to over 30 nations in English andChinese. This involves the tracking of over 5,000 metals productsprices.
Other facts the company touts:
- Data on 80 metals products for more than7,000individualized graphs and market-trends
- Daily contact with 2,000 national and regional companies in the sector
- Up to 20 years of historical prices and trends across metals products
- With contacts in over 200 countries totaling 200,000 in registered companies
- Annually hosts 20 international metal conferences around the world that include 3,000 professional attendees
What follows are the company’s offerings
Market News
Their marketanalysis team tracks the trends in global metals and steel market prices through continual communication channels with market participants purchasing, selling, and making high-level decisions. The company publishes timely and authoritative news covering the market dynamics across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Market Prices
Through the same communication channels and with an uninterrupted stream of input, the company provides metals and steel prices daily for China, India, Europe, United States, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and other key countries. These highlight transaction and offer prices by region in China. With continual service since 2001, Asian Metal provides accurate historical pricing for research and analytical purposes. More and more companies look to Asian Metal as a market leader on pricing for international and domestic contracts.
Data Graphs
Asian Metal provides firsthand data and statistics for international industrial operations, production rate, inventory levels, sales figures, and consumption rates and many more. The information is brought together from a large number of sources to provide highly sensitive and valuable data in an integrated format. In doing so, the company has made available an unparalleled source of statistical data in customizable graphs, charts, and real-time information for an overview of whole markets.
Market Statistics
Asian Metal provides metals and steel import/export data by month for the world’s major trading nations. These statistics include price levels, customers import and export data with destination, import and export volume fluctuations, and major companies exporting by country.
Research Reports
Asian Metal produces weekly, monthly, and annual reports to track changes across metals products. These reports highlight operational developments and include quantitative and qualitative analysis on recent development toprovide a comprehensive analysis on market conditions. Reports areinterspersed with specialized data and charts to make comprehension quick and easy for users. Specialized customer-specific reports are also provided by topic.
Trading Platform
The website offers international companies the availability to list a plan to buy or to sell production directly through our forum. The posted request is readily presented in front of the wide-array of potential customers from around the world. Once posted, the user has access to a separate, easy-to-manage platform for information dissemination and negotiations.
Metals Map:
Asian Metal offers the combined 20 years of accumulated data with an easy world map to present targeted customers. Users can target regions, operations, and gather information on consumers before sending product and information inquiries. Companies can also personalize and promote their products by specializing their profiles on the map in order better to target potential customers.
Metal Events
Asian Metal annually hosts specialized international conferences in order to provide a platform for thousands in the metal sector to meet and actively participate in discussions on the industry. It provides an opportunity for industry elites from around the world to meet face to face and exchange ideas, meet customers, and take part in industry discussions.
Advert
With the high-levels of international website traffic and the large global audience, Asian Metal provides unparalleled advantages as an advertising venue for effective exposure and attention for market participants across the board. Both Chinese and English versions of the website can be targeted for ads with a variety of options in order to provide each client with responsive and positive value for advertising through Asian Metal.
The Entire Process
Asian Metaldoes not control the entire pricing worldwide but multiple persons with extensive experience have informed us they are certainly influential.
Regardless, China plays a dominant role in the global rare earth market, and many Chinese companies, including those involved in mining, refining, and trading, influence global prices.
The pricing of rare earth elements is generally influenced by several factors:
- Supply and Demand: Since China controls a significant portion of the supply, decisions made by Chinese companies and regulators (such as export quotas or production limits) can have a strong impact on global prices.
- Government Policies: The Chinese government has, in the past, implemented policies such as export restrictions, tariffs, and production caps, which have led to fluctuations in rare earth prices. Companies like Asia Metal operate within this regulatory environment and their pricing strategies may align with these broader policies.
- Market Dynamics: Rare earth prices are also driven by industrial demand, especially in sectors like renewable energy, electronics, and defense. As demand for products like electric vehicles and wind turbines increases, the prices of certain rare earths (such as neodymium and dysprosium) can rise.
Although Asia Metal might influence the rare earth market through its operations, it does not single-handedly set prices. The broader dynamics of the market and China's overarching control play a larger role.
Daniel
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