Highlights

• Gansu Rare Earth secured a 2-ton order for cobalt-free, low-nickel hydrogen storage powder after passing customer pilot tests, marking a shift from lab validation to commercial deployment.
• The new material uses synergistic doping and multiphase regulation to reduce costs, improve activation speed, and achieve breakthrough high-temperature charge retention performance.
• China strategically reduces exposure to volatile cobalt and nickel supply chains while leveraging rare earth expertise to dominate advanced hydrogen storage technologies.

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China’s Gansu Rare Earth, an affiliate of the state-owned Baogang Group, has announced a seemingly modest but strategically important step: its cobalt-free, low-nickel NFC hydrogen storage powder has passed a customer pilot test and secured a first 2-ton purchase order.

On paper, it’s just a materials R&D milestone. Read between the lines, and it looks like a deliberate move to engineer away from cobalt and heavy nickel dependence in hydrogen-storage alloys—two metals with volatile pricing and geopolitically exposed supply chains.

According to the company release, the project began in January and uses “synergistic doping” and multiphase structure regulation to achieve dual targets: lower cost and stable performance. The new powder reportedly reduces raw material costs, improves activation speed (how quickly the material begins absorbing hydrogen), and matches mainstream cobalt-free materials in other performance metrics.

Critically, Gansu Rare Earth also claims a breakthrough in high-temperature charge retention, an important reliability metric for real-world cycling. The initial 2-ton order is small, but commercially meaningful—signaling a transition from laboratory validation to paid industrial use, where learning curves, customer lock-in, and pricing power start to form.

Focused on Accelerating Commercialization

To accelerate commercialization, the company says it has built an integrated “production–sales–research–supply” chain, opened a fast-track ‘green channel’ for sample production, and targeted customers across the new-energy materials sector. The language is classic state-enterprise phrasing—“innovation-driven development,” “industrial upgrading,” “high-quality development”—but the strategic direction is clear. If the claims hold, China is reducing its exposure to cobalt and nickel while strengthening its grip on a niche but strategically important class of hydrogen storage materials, with rare earth science as the differentiator.

Summary

For the U.S. and Europe, this is another sign that advanced hydrogen technologies are converging with China’s strengths in rare earths, metallurgy, and state-led industrial planning. As always with announcements from state-owned entities, all performance figures and commercial traction should be independently verified.

News from state-owned entities should always be validated by third parties.

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