On the morning of March 1, the press office of the State Council held a conference on the development of industry and information technology. Xiaoyaqing, Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, answered questions from the media on the regulations on the management of rare earth (Draft for comments) drafted by the Ministry of industry and information technology (hereinafter referred to as "Regulations on management").
On January 15, in order to regulate the production and operation order of rare earth mining and smelting separation according to law, to develop and utilize rare earth resources orderly and promote the high-quality development of rare earth industry, the Ministry of industry and information technology drafted the regulations on the management of rare earth (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as "Regulations on management") and publicly consulted the society on the official website.
Rare earth, as a non renewable strategic resource, is a general name of 17 metal elements. It is known as "industrial MSG", "the mother of new materials", and it is widely used in electronic information, petrochemical, metallurgy, machinery, energy and other industries. It is also concerned about its application in high and new military technologies such as missiles, intelligent weapons, navigation instruments, jet engines, etc.
Xiao said rare earth is a strategic resource. The regulations are mainly issued according to the long-term development strategy and market demand of rare earth, as well as the problems we have in the actual development.
He first mentioned that China is a large country with rare earth resources and the largest actual output and export volume. Some countries have accused us of limiting rare earth exports, but in fact most of the rare earth they buy are exported by China. But one phenomenon deserves our attention: "we have not sold the price of rare earth at present, and the price of" soil "is a vicious competition, which makes the precious resources waste by competing for price pressure
Second, there are many environmental protection problems in the production of rare earth. "There are still many reactions in environmental protection after coming out for the good rare earth market, hard mining, hard digging and hard refining."
Third, rare earth is a rare resource in itself. Xiao Yaqing said that there are disorderly mining and waste of resources, such as only the most abundant one, and the comprehensive utilization effect of resources is very poor. In the long run, it will be a problem to use resources comprehensively if it has not been used for several years.
Fourth, Xiao said that there are many low-level rare earth products with low development level, while high-level rare earth products are indeed relatively few, which is not conducive to technological innovation and scientific and technological progress.
Xiao Yaqing finally said that the international division of labor and the globalization of economy in the industrial chain are a big trend. In this process, if you have you in your own, you need to work together to deal with it.
Rare earth is an important strategic resource, and the United States is now strongly dependent on China
Rare earth resources are heavily dependent on by the United States, and are important for national security, military security and economic prosperity. For a long time, the United States has a great demand for China's rare earth resources. In 2018, the U.
Rare earth, as an important strategic resource, is a necessity for the manufacture of cutting-edge weapons. In a 2013 report from the Congressional Research services, the F-35 lightning II fighter aircraft, considered one of the world's most advanced stealth fighters, requires about 417kg of rare earth material for each aircraft. Some rare earth metals, including yttrium and terbium, are used in laser targeting and weapon systems of war vehicles, including Stryker armored vehicles, Predator drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles. In addition, the terminal application fields of rare earth in the United States include catalyst, ceramic glass, metallurgical application, alloy, polishing, etc. In some industries with higher integration degree of system, and also the advantageous industries in the United States, such as aerospace, automobile manufacturing, high-end medical equipment, new energy and other fields, rare earth products are also one of the essential raw materials. Therefore, the United States has to rely on China's rare earth resources in most key areas in the face of the advantageous environment of China's total industry chain of rare earth.
China has long lacked pricing power, which the US may influence export prices
For a long time before, China has a large number of rare earth enterprises, which are generally small in scale, lack of consistent norms and guidance, relatively weak macro-control ability, and lack of cooperation among enterprises, which makes Chinese rare earth enterprises compete for price when they offer export. The low concentration of industry and vicious competition, and the oversupply in export make China lose the pricing right of rare earth in the international market at the beginning, and the price of rare earth in China has been in a low and stable state. With the continuous development of rare earth minerals in the United States and other countries, the competition between rare earth resources and China will be more and more obvious. If China has been lacking the pricing right of rare earth, the future will affect the export price of rare earth in China in the long run, and thus affect the development of China's domestic rare earth industry.
But in the short term, because of the lack of effective substitutes in the upstream area of rare earth, the price of rare earth will not only decrease, but will rise. Affected by the formal seal of Myanmar rare earth and the Sino US trade war, the prices of rare earth products have risen. In mid May 2019, the price index of rare earth gradually increased, and jumped to 149.7 on the 23rd from 132.1 on the previous day, with a daily increase of 13.23%, followed by fluctuations between 152.2 and 153.4.
China's rare earth industry is big and not strong. Playing rare earth card without hesitation will affect the development of domestic industry
China has absolute advantages in the upstream and middle reaches of the rare earth industry chain, so China can control the upstream and middle reaches of the rare earth industry and then influence the downstream application links of the United States, especially gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, erbium, ytterbium and lutetium, which will have a serious impact on the high-tech field of heavy rare earth application in the downstream of the United States in the short term. However, with the multi-angle layout of the United States, the supply elasticity of rare earth will be strengthened continuously. The restrictions on the United States will be weaker only through the middle and upper reaches. At the same time, the lack of pricing right and the application technology of high-end rare earth downstream is easy to become the Counter-measures of the United States to deal with the dilemma of rare earth in China, which has a negative impact on the healthy development of China's rare earth industry. Therefore, in the face of such a situation, we need to play this rare earth card with a prudent attitude, and at the same time, we should try to solve the risks as much as possible.
Lanthanum compounds are the main rare earth products imported from the United States. It is mainly used in high-end products in the fields of petroleum catalyst, optical glass, functional ceramic materials, etc. In 2018, China exported 10632.84 tons of lanthanum oxide and 8694.26 tons of lanthanum carbonate, accounting for 42.3% of the export volume of rare earth compounds. A large number of lanthanum oxide and lanthanum carbonate products in China are exported to the United States, of which lanthanum oxide accounts for 53% of the export and lanthanum carbonate accounts for 46% of the export. Because of the abundant global resources of lanthanum compounds, there are many alternatives in the United States in this field. And once the United States imports lanthanum compounds from other countries, and China has limited application to light rare earth compounds such as La and CE, this will cause the stagnation of domestic lanthanum, cerium and other light rare earth compounds, thus affecting the healthy development of the upstream market of non strategic rare earth resources in China.
Table - distribution of some rare earth mines overseas
Although China is a big country in rare earth industry, rare earth resources, production, consumption and export are among the first in the world. But in the downstream application field, except for its position in sintering rare earth permanent magnet materials, most of the applications are still concentrated in the middle and low-level technology level, which is far from the developed countries in the world. In terms of rare earth magnetostrictive materials, China has a significant gap with the developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany and so on. The United States has applied for more than 100 related patents in this field. NASA has successfully applied high-precision servo valve and high-speed on-off valve to satellite orbit change system and other fields, and the industry has entered a stable demand growth period. Although China has been engaged in the research and development of rare earth magnetostrictive materials for nearly 20 years, most of them only stay at the laboratory level or only develop a small number of samples or prototypes. In the polishing materials, rare earth polishing powder is widely used in the polishing of liquid crystal glass, display screen, optical devices and electronic components. At present, the quality of rare earth polishing powder in China is at the middle and low level. There is still a gap between the product quality and foreign products in terms of particle size distribution, hardness and suspension. High-end polishing powder still depends on imports. In the field of rare earth ceramics, Japan and the United States have been in the leading position in the field of special ceramics. Japan occupies 50% of the world's electronic ceramics market share, and the United States accounts for 30%, ranking the second in the world.
Therefore, if China imposed a ban on rare earth in the United States, it will be very easy to be countersanctions in some downstream high-end applications. At present, China still needs to further expand the application field of new rare earth materials and improve the relevant application technology, so as to obtain more initiative in the international rare earth market.
Enhance the discourse power and global control of China's rare earth strategic resources
（1） To make reasonable policies and regulations of rare earth industry, improve laws and regulations, and strengthen the strategic position of rare earth resources
Rare earth is an important strategic resource, which is very important for the development of modern high-tech. therefore, it should give the sustained support to the rare earth industry in policy level. First, relevant departments and industry organizations should formulate reasonable development standards and export management system to enhance China's leading position in the process of rare earth export, and at the same time, make use of the centralized advantages of the six domestic rare earth groups to steadily obtain the international pricing right of rare earth. Secondly, in the production of rare earth, the government should improve the relevant supervision system, prohibit unlicensed mining and over exploitation, crack down on the black trade of rare earth resources, and regulate the market of rare earth industry by establishing exchanges and increasing environmental protection standards of enterprises. Finally, due to the uncontrolled exploitation and export for many years, the recoverable reserves of rare earth resources have decreased significantly. Therefore, China should continue to strengthen the reserve of rare earth resources, and protect the rare earth resources from the source.
（2） Improve the downstream industry chain of rare earth and develop high-end rare earth products
At present, the overall situation of China's rare earth industry still belongs to the world's largest rare earth raw material production and functional material production country, but it is not a power with high-end application of rare earth. There is a gap between China's rare earth high-tech, high added value and high-end application fields and the international, and the related basic material preparation technology and equipment are also manufactured.
Therefore, China should give full play to its own advantages, extend the industrial chain of rare earth application, strengthen the development of new rare earth materials and its high-end application industries, increase the support of policies and funds, enhance the added value of products and realize industrial upgrading. Thus, it can improve the status of China's rare earth in the international market and lay a foundation for the discourse power of China's rare earth export.
（3） Pay attention to the development and utilization of light rare earth resources and take the road of rare earth application with Chinese characteristics
The rare earth in China presents the resource and industrial pattern of North Light South heavy. Heavy rare earth elements are not enough reserves, but they are indispensable additives in the fields of national defense, military industry and high-tech, so they are in short supply in the international market. On the contrary, the light rare earth resources represented by the north are in a state of oversupply, and with the increasing demand of magnetic materials downstream, the production of lanthanum, cerium and other light rare earth elements separated by praseodymium and neodymium elements is also expanding. However, the application of lanthanum cerium and other elements in China is very limited, and a large number of lanthanum cerium elements backlog make their own resource value greatly reduced. Therefore, the importance of the effective utilization of such light rare earth resources is not only in line with the strategic policy of extending the rare earth to the downstream, but also in line with the current situation of China's own resources, which will help to further deepen the resource advantages.
（4） Training professional talents and promoting the rapid transformation of production, learning and research
With the change of global economic growth mode and the rapid development of foreign trade, rare earth industry should also increase the investment in science and technology, strengthen the cooperation and exchange between enterprises and scientific research structures, improve the mechanism of cooperation between production, learning and research, and accelerate the transformation of R & D and industrial achievements. We should also set up a special research team, introduce and train professional talents, establish effective incentive measures and evaluation methods, fully mobilize the subjective initiative and creativity of scientific and technological talents, so as to accelerate the healthy and rapid development of rare earth industry.
The author of this paper is Tianjin Institute of materials Commission
The author of this paper: Wang ningning
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