Highlights

• Baotou Rare Earth Exchange expands to 1,231 registered enterprises, launching innovative trading models like competitive bidding and production capacity pre-sale.
• The exchange aims to influence global pricing through a new daily pricing bulletin and plans to release the Xinhua·China Rare Earth Price Index.
• China's rare earth infrastructure is consolidating control over pricing, trade execution, and industrial access through digital and financial innovations.

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In a bold push to become China’s national-level rare earth trading hub, the Baotou Rare Earth Exchange reported a 52.63% year-on-year increase in trading volume for the first half of 2025, with over 1,231 registered enterprises now on the platform. Though transaction value growth was more modest at 6.03%, the exchange's rapid expansion underscores Beijing’s ambition to build a price-discovery center rivaling global commodities benchmarks—one that’s compliant, digitized, and uniquely Chinese.

Rare Earth Exchanges (REEx) reported on this milestone yesterday. Another entity, China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co., Ltd (CNREG) featured (opens in a new tab) the exchange late last week.

New Trading Models Push Cost Transparency, Risk Hedging

One of the standout developments is the implementation of a real-time, competitive bidding system for rare earth raw materials and byproducts. This March, the Exchange launched an open bidding model for upstream inputs like ammonium chloride, yielding a 93% success rate across 70+ transactions worth over ¥50 million ($550,000), a 6.6% efficiency gain—a major draw for small and mid-sized players.

Meanwhile, a new “production capacity pre-sale” model is nearing launch. It lets producers lock in future output at preset prices and transfer production rights on-platform—essentially turning future supply into tradable assets. This mechanism offers rare earth manufacturers a hedge against demand volatility and market swings.

Platform Expands to Logistics, Recycling, and Micro-Specialty Metals

Baotou’s exchange now lists 89 product types, up from 82, including seven new additions like cerium carbonate with high praseodymium content. Notably, it launched a dedicated rare earth waste-trading zone and broke new ground in online sales of rare earth polymer additives. Regional fulfillment hubs in Ningbo and Ganzhou further boost its logistical reach across the Yangtze River Delta and southern China.

Price Index Ambitions Take Shape

In a bid to influence global pricing, the Exchange launched a daily pricing bulletin that now sources over 200 price samples per day from 150+ companies, including China Rare Earth Group and JL Mag. Trial runs of a “spot trading price index” and “trend factor index” began in mid-2025, with plans to formally release the Xinhua·China (Baotou) Rare Earth Price Index through national media channels.

Financial Services Arm Targets SME Growth

Through its new “Xi Rong Tong” financing arm, the Exchange partnered with five major Chinese banks to offer tailored loans and credit products. Six rare earth companies have already secured over ¥45 million (~$6.2M) in financing.

REEx Reflection

China’s Rare Earth Exchange is no longer just expanding—it’s actively positioning itself as a national price-setter, financing hub, and digital command center for the country’s entire rare earth value chain. For Western markets, this marks a turning point: China’s rare earth infrastructure isn’t just maturing—it’s consolidating control over pricing, trade execution, and industrial access.

Let’s be candid. Even with the recent U.S. Department of Defense and MP Materials several hundred million dollar deal (over $1 billion with debt facilitated by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan) the so-called “ex-China market” remains embryonic. As REEx has reported, it’s still a fragmented web of regional traders and accounts for only a sliver of global mining, separation, processing, and magnet production—let alone components and final assembly.

That’s precisely why REEx was founded in January 2025: to accelerate the rise of a credible, coordinated ex-China alternative—before the window to build one closes.