Highlights

• China's Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange achieves significant Q1 growth, positioning itself as a national pricing and trading hub for rare earth elements.
• Exchange develops innovative three-part infrastructure strategy focusing on:
  • Trading
  • Information services
  • Supply chain finance
• Emerging platform aims to establish first global rare earth spot price index, challenging Western market benchmarks and positioning China as a strategic price-setter.

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The Baogang News Desk reports (opens in a new tab) that China’s Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange (Baotou REE Exchange) posted a strong first-quarter performance in 2025, achieving a 22.41% year-over-year increase in total trading volume and a 12.73% rise in revenue.

The Exchange, based in Inner Mongolia, is positioning itself not just as a regional platform but as China’s national pricing and trading hub for rare earths—a strategic market that currently has no equivalent outside of China.

In its Q1 report, the Exchange credited its strong performance to an aggressive and adaptive strategy, emphasizing innovation, platform optimization, and compliance with national industrial policy. The Exchange is closely aligned with the strategic directives of President Xi Jinping, especially his focus on building Inner Mongolia into a powerhouse for critical minerals.

Central to this strategy is transforming the Exchange into a three-part infrastructure hub: a trading and pricing center, an information services center, and a supply chain finance center. The goal is to convert the scale advantages of China's rare earth industry into consolidated economic and geopolitical leverage.

New Products

A major development in Q1 was the launch of new niche products and raw material auctions. The Exchange implemented tailored trading plans for individual firms such as Huamei, Ruixin, and Hefar Rare Earths. These plans included full-service onboarding support—rule interpretation, technical integration, and end-to-end transaction guidance—aimed at encouraging smaller upstream players to enter the formal exchange market.

Scientific Collaboration and Communications

In parallel, Baotou REE Exchange signed a cooperation agreement with the Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute, establishing a dedicated promotional space on the Exchange’s website and creating a marketing channel for scientific and industrial collaborations.

First for China—And Potentially the World—Spot Price Index

Is China’s rare earth exchange going global? Baogang Group certainly hints at this case.

The company reports that behind the scenes, the Exchange is laying the groundwork for a real-time spot price index for rare earths—a first for China and potentially the world. The Q1 update reports eight trial index runs completed by March 25.

The system is underpinned by a daily collection of at least 200 data points from vetted enterprises, with no fewer than 100 verified quotes across a minimum of five product types. This trial phase reflects China’s long-term ambition to control global rare earth pricing, breaking reliance on Western benchmarks and setting the stage for state-aligned price discovery mechanisms.                                  

Implications for Global Markets

The emergence of the Baotou Rare Earth Exchange as a formal trading and pricing institution is more than a domestic milestone—it’s a geostrategic move. To date, there is no Western counterpart offering transparent, real-time REE pricing on a public exchange.  

This is an aim of Rare Earth Exchanges—starting with the aggregation of news worldwide and rare earth element mining projects, followed by pricing information and a supply and demand insight engine.

Prices are still determined through opaque bilateral contracts or loosely structured market data from China. Baotou's effort to formalize and standardize pricing—backed by daily sampling and index trials—could soon give China not just supply dominance but also price-setting power.

For Western buyers, especially in the U.S., EU, and Japan, the growing maturity of China’s rare earth trading platforms underscores the urgency of developing alternative supply chains with independent pricing and market transparency. If the Baotou model succeeds and becomes institutionalized across other critical materials, it could reset the global commodities framework in China’s favor—starting with rare earths.

As Baotou REE Exchange marks its “strong start to the year,” its real goal is clear: to become the OPEC of rare earths—not just controlling the flow, but commanding the price.