The market for new rare earth materials (rare earth functional materials) continues to grow, and my country’s high-end productivity needs to be improved

Rare earth new materials, mainly rare earth functional materials, are a general term for materials made with rare earth elements as matrix or rare earth elements as dopants. They mainly include rare earth magnetic materials, rare earth catalytic materials, rare earth optical functional materials, and rare earth hydrogen storage materials. , rare earth polishing materials and other categories. Among them, rare earth magnetic materials include rare earth permanent magnet materials, rare earth super magnetostrictive materials, rare earth magnetic refrigeration materials, etc.; rare earth optical functional materials include rare earth luminescent materials and rare earth crystal materials. In addition, new rare earth materials also include high-purity rare earth metals.

Rare earths include a total of 17 elements. All 17 rare earth mineral resources are distributed in my country. Our country’s rare earth industry system is well developed and all 17 rare earth elements can be smelted and separated. Rare earth elements have unique optical, electrical, magnetic and other properties and are indispensable in the development and production of various functional materials. Rare earth new materials can be widely used in electronics, communications, petroleum, chemical industry, metallurgy, glass ceramics, industrial equipment, automobile transportation, new energy, environmental protection, marine engineering, aerospace, military industry and national defense.

According to the “China Rare Earth New Materials (Rare Earth Functional Materials) Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report 2023-2028” released by the Industrial Research Center shows that in 2022, my country’s rare earth new materials market will exceed 50 billion yuan. As the downstream industry continues to develop, the application fields of my country’s rare earth new materials continue to expand and the demand gradually increases towards high-end. It is expected that its market size will continue to rise in the future.

Among the segmented products of rare earth new materials in my country, the demand for rare earth permanent magnet materials is in a leading position, mainly benefiting from the development of new energy vehicles, electronics, home appliances, new energy power generation and other industries. NdFeB permanent magnet materials are an important product type; secondly, They are rare earth catalytic materials, which mainly benefit from the growing demand in industries such as petroleum catalytic cracking, automobile exhaust catalytic purification, and industrial flue gas denitration; followed by rare earth optical functional materials, including luminescent materials, laser crystals, scintillation crystals, etc., which mainly benefit from lighting, Developments in the fields of displays, lasers, nuclear medicine, and high-energy physics research.

my country’s rare earth industry chain is well developed and can produce a variety of new rare earth materials, with production capacity constantly expanding. However, R&D, innovation, and production capabilities are still weak, with insufficient high-end production capacity and excess low-end production capacity. For example, my country is the world’s largest producer of rare earth permanent magnet materials. However, the products are mainly used in mid- to low-end fields. Only a few companies have the production capacity for high-end products, and the demand is highly dependent on external sources. Overall, the strength of a few leading rare earth new material companies in my country is at the internationally advanced level, but most of them are small in scale, have low technology, have a small market share, and have low industry concentration.

Industry analysts said that my country’s representative rare earth new material manufacturers mainly include Sinopec Catalyst Co., Ltd. and PetroChina Lanzhou Petrochemical Company. Catalyst Factory, China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co., Ltd., Youyan Rare Earth New Materials Co., Ltd., Beijing Lei Shengqiang Technology Co., Ltd., Chengdu Dongjun Laser Co., Ltd., Shanghai Xinman Crystal Materials Technology Co., Ltd. , Sichuan Tianlexinda Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Zibo Guoli New Power Technology Co., Ltd., Gansu Rare Earth New Materials Co., Ltd., Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute, etc.