Rare earth swells serious damage LED energy-saving lamp industry chain

Rare earth is not thin, and the price per ton rises by more than 10 million yuan in 1 month? From the price of “cabbage” to “silver price,” rare earths have perfectly interpreted the myth of rising prices. The use of rare earth as the raw material of LED trichromatic phosphors also rose from 300 yuan / kg to 1800 yuan / kg three months ago, in the face of rising prices of raw materials, China's LED industry how to deal with?

Rare earth "modern industrial vitamins" advanced strongly into the bubble era

At present, rare earth single-oxide cerium oxide with a purity of ≥99.99% has reached 19 million yuan/ton, which is already more than twice the price of silver. The price of the product in the first half of May was only 8.2 million yuan / ton, an increase of more than 10 million yuan / ton in just 1 month. In addition, antimony oxide and antimony oxide also increased by more than one time. Why does the price of rare earths rise by more than 10 million yuan per ton within one month! Some people even laughed that the rare earth was going to catch up with gold. Wang Caifeng, deputy inspector of the Raw Materials Division of the former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and head of the preparation group of the China Rare Earth Industry Association, said that he bid farewell to the “price of cabbage” for the upstream rare earth enterprises.

According to the head of the purchasing department of a well-known lighting company in Zhejiang, as a rare earth downstream user, the prices of rare earth trichromatic phosphors as raw materials for energy-saving lamps and LED lighting are almost changing every day, and it is difficult to buy them. As a result of work stoppages, many lighting companies in Zhejiang have stopped producing fluorescent lamps. Rare earth, an indispensable "auxiliary" for many industries, has even been praised as a "modern industrial vitamin" for its strength, or it has marked its entry into the bubble era. What causes it?

From "cabbage price" to "silver price"

Relative to the heavy rare earth in the south, the price of light rare earth in northern China rose slightly. According to the quote of the Baotou Rare Earth Enterprise Confederation (Alliance) on June 4, the price of antimony oxide was 169,000 - 17 thousand yuan per ton and the price of antimony oxide was 219,000 - 22 million per ton. Compared with April 29, the quotation rose by nearly 40,000-50,000 yuan/ton. As to whether the price of rare earth is a “return to value”, a person in charge of a large-scale rare earth smelting and separation company in Luzhou said that although the price of rare earth is high, many traders are still reluctant to ship, and the market is completely in a state of “having no market”. This is the market "buy and sell" formed, the price of rare earth get rid of the "price of cabbage" on the rare earth upstream nothing bad. However, for downstream companies, it should have a normal convergence transition when the price rises to a certain level. The price increase of rare earths will certainly cause damage to the relevant domestic industrial chain.

Minmetals Donglin Lighting (Jiangxi) Co., Ltd., a general manager, said that due to the current supply of fluorescent powder, many companies have stopped working, the impact of the second half for the entire industry will gradually be reflected.

Wang Caifeng, deputy inspector of the Raw Materials Division of the former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and chief of the preparation group of the China Rare Earth Industry Association, also said that NdFeB companies complained to him that the price of rare earths rose too fast, causing NdFeB materials to increase in price. Although the current day is not yet a “opening pot”, if the market is still “having no market”, it will definitely cause great damage to the rare earth industry. At present, the amount of rare earth used in fluorescent lamps and hydrogen storage materials is decreasing. With the advancement of technology, many materials have been continuously replaced. However, there is currently no substitute for neodymium-iron-boron materials. Downstream companies that have stockpiled rare-earth raw materials may not make money if they use light to make up materials, but they have very high profit margins for selling rare-earth raw materials. However, this phenomenon is not sustainable, and it is based on the premise of damage to the industry.

LED industry is affected by the surge in raw materials

The rare earth metal is a transition element of Group IIIB of the Chemical Periodic Table, containing 17 kinds of scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y) and 15 kinds of lanthanoid elements. It is distributed as a compound or an ion in surface minerals to make LEDs. LCD panels, touch panels, hybrid motors, DVDs and other high-tech products are indispensable materials. Rare earths are widely used in various electronic components. For example, ND and Dy used in neodymium magnets used in motors for electric cars and hybrid cars, LED used in phosphors for LED and laser light sources, and La used as a hydrogen storage alloy in nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries. To improve the capacitor characteristics, La is added, and Y is used in the superconducting material. In addition, the glass substrate of the liquid crystal panel and the grinding of the digital camera optical lens also require the use of CE.

At present, rare earth minerals with industrial mining value mainly include monazite, cesium lanthanum ore, yttrium ore, and weathering shell-leaching rare earth ore. The former two mainly produce light rare earths, and the latter two mainly produce heavy rare earths. The weathered crust-leaching rare earth ore in the south of China not only has abundant heavy rare earth reserves, but also is easy to smelt. It is the main source of heavy rare earths in the world. Due to the abundance of rare earth resources and the low cost of the metallurgical chain, China is currently supplying more than 90% of the world's rare earths from China. However, in recent years, due to China's industrial restructuring, it has devoted itself to the development of high technology, which has increased the demand for rare earths in China by more than 10 times compared with 1990. As the world's largest area of ​​rare earth consumption, China's mining of rare earth gradually turned to supply-based domestic demand, and China also to increase tariffs, limit export volume and other ways to reduce the output of rare earth.

China's reduction of rare earth output results in a rise in rare earth prices. The prices of commonly used raw materials such as ND, Dy, and CE in high-tech products have soared 2 to 5 times between June and September 2010, forcing Countries are actively developing new rare earth resources. At present, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and other countries all have rare earth mining plans, and it is expected that production will begin as soon as this year. Industry analysts believe that the future price of rare earth and other raw materials will continue to rise. Since rare earth is an important raw material for phosphors, and phosphors are used in fluorescent lamps, energy-saving lamps, and LED device packages, the chain reaction brought about by the price increase will surely bring about a greater impact on related industries.

Although the raw material price increase factor will bring large companies in the traditional lighting field into the LED lighting industry, it will also drive more small businesses to join the LED market. At present, the semiconductor lighting industry has faced many enterprises, small scale, and lack of technological innovation capabilities. Most of the enterprises are concentrated in the low-end market, low level of repeated competition and other issues. The accelerated entry of a large number of traditional lighting companies will inevitably make the competition more fierce.