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February 1, 2023 Raw material prices of Neodymium magnets

• 2023-02-01

An overview of the Neodymium magnet raw material latest prices.

What are rare earth magnets – and what are they used for?

• 2023-02-01

Samarium cobalt (Samarium cobalt 5 or Sm2Co17) and NdFeb (Nd2Fe14B) are both rare earth magnets – the strongest rare earth permanent magnets known.

They are called rare earths because both samarium and neodymium are found in lanthanide metals in the periodic table, and therefore the properties and crystal structure of these magnets are very similar.

Samarium is alloyed with the transition metal cobalt. Neodymium is alloyed with the transition metal iron. So each magnet is a combination of a rare earth metal and a transition metal.

Neodymium magnets also contain very small amounts of boron, which makes them different from samarium cobalt magnets because neodymium iron boron uses three main alloying elements, whereas samarium cobalt uses only two.

Rare earth magnets are the strongest permanent magnets known. They are used in many high-tech applications, such as electric drive motors for cars, smart speakers, smartphones (see our article on NdFeb magnets in smart speakers for smartphones and Internet of Things devices), sensors and more.

China’s Power Cuts Widen Amid Shortages and Climate Push

• 2021-09-28

Power rationing and forced cuts to factory production in China are widening amid electricity supply issues and a push to enforce environmental regulations.

The curbs have expanded to more than 10 provinces, including economic powerhouses Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Friday. Several companies have reported the impacts of power curbs in filings on mainland stock exchanges.

Local governments are ordering the power cuts as they try to avoid missing targets for reducing energy and emissions intensity. The country’s top economic planner last month flagged nine provinces for increasing intensity over the first half of the year amid a strong economic rebound from the pandemic.

Meanwhile record high coal prices are making it unprofitable for many power plants to operate, creating supply gaps in some provinces, the Business Herald reported. If those gaps expand the impact could be worse than power curtailments that hit parts of the country during the summer.  Zhejiang, about 160 energy-intensive companies in the textile, dyeing and chemical fiber industries have been ordered to halt production to meet energy consumption targets, Caixin reported. About 80% of the companies are in Ma’an, where a production halt order was issued from Sept. 21-30, the report said, citing an unnamed official.

Emergency power cuts were also ordered across 14 cities in the northern province of Liaoning after the grid suffered supply shortfalls, according to a notice on the local grid operator’s social media late Thursday. “Power suppliers will spare no effort to keep providing electricity to residents, hospitals, schools, radio, TV, telecommunications, transportation hubs and other important users,” the notice said.
Yunnan province is canceling electricity price discounts for aluminum smelters that made power costs about 16%-22% cheaper than industry average, according to a separate Caixin report. Yunnan Aluminum Co. last week said its production through the rest of the year will be significantly reduced because of provincial energy consumption controls.

The CSI 300 Utilities subgauge is up 19% this month, hitting the highest since late 2015 this week amid tight supply. Huaneng Power International Inc. and GD Power Development Co. are up at least 40% this month, leading on the subgauge, while smaller power stocks such as Zhongmin Energy Co. and Shanghai Electric Power Co. have added at least 70%.

The widening power curbs are also impacting agriculture, forcing the shutdown of several plants in Jiangsu and the northern port city of Tianjin that crush soybeans into oils used in salad dressings and margarine and meal used for animal feed, AgriCensus reported.

Rare Earth Magnets are Used Everyday, But What Are They?

• 2021-03-19

Neodymium Iron Boron Rare Earth Magnets are used everywhere and are one of the strongest permanent magnets available. But what exactly are they?

The Neodymium Magnet (also known as NdFeB, NIB or Neomagnet) is the most widely used type of Rare Earth Magnet. It is a permanent magnet which has been made from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron to form the Nd2Fe14B tetragonal crystalline structure.

The first Neodymium Magnet was discovered in 1982 by General Motors and Sumitomo Special Metals as they investigated alternatives to the costly Samarium Cobalt Magnets. Since the discovery, the use of the Neodymium Magnet has touched everyone’s lives and can be found in items we use everyday like mobile phones, computers and even kitchen cupboard catches. They are also essential for renewable energy including wind turbines and electric

Neodymium Magnets are also help us recycle as a fundamental part of a Magnetic Separator or Eddy Current Separator as manufactured by Bunting Magnetics. The magnetic forces are used to both attract and repel metals to enable separation and recovery.

China dominates the global production of Neodymium Magnets (95%) due to the location of many of the reserves. At the end of 2010 and into 2011, the Chinese Government sent shock waves around the world when they slashed export quotas for Rare Earth Magnets and dramatically increased prices for foreign customers. It wasn’t until 2015, after China lost a World Trade Organization case brought by the USA and other trading partners, that the restrictions relaxed.

Neodymium Magnets are produced using two manufacturing methods:

• Classical powder metallurgy or sintered magnet process;

• Rapid solidification or bonded magnet process;

The Sintered magnet process produces a stronger and robust Rare Earth Magnet, but is more expensive to manufacture.

There is a enormous range of sizes and shapes of Neodymium Magnets for a diverse number of applications that continues to grow. There is no slowdown in the demand and there is only a question of supply and the price in the longer term.

Magnetic material industry raw materials turmoil

• 2021-01-26

Dear respected client

From October, 2020 ,most of raw materials are keeping up-trend. Herein, we published the main materials price table as below, hope that it can be helpful and draw your attention that we see the market moving up

About recent magnetic material price reason

• 2021-01-20

Recently, we have received same questions from downstream customers about the price increase of magnetic materials that some of them have puzzles and doubts about the problem. Therefore, we have made the following explanation with several main objective factors .

From October, 2020.China’s magnetic material industry has been affected by the international market, and the prices of bulk commodities have soared, especially the prices of rare earth, non-ferrous metals, iron ore, strontium ore and other raw materials. In addition, the multiple factors such as the domestic environmental protection concepts, cut or stop production of international iron and steel enterprises which have caused the price of magnetic materials have rocketed, and the supply is very tight.
For example, iron oxide has doubled from 2,000 CNY / ton in late last year to 4,000 CNY / ton, and in short supply now; FE-P has increased by 50% from 1,000 CNY / ton at the end of last year to 1,500 CNY / ton now; strontium carbonate has increased by 40% from 5,000 CNY/ ton to 7,000 CNY / ton now; cobalt oxide has increased by 12% from 190,000 CNY / ton to 230,000 CNY / ton, and the price of Pr Nd has also risen more than 50% . Judging from the development situation, the prices of these raw materials are still rising and stay high. The above mentioned materials are the main raw materials of magnetic products, accounting for more than 30% of the product cost, and permanent magnet products are even higher. The rising of raw materials cost from upstream will inevitably push up the price of magnetic materials. It is conservatively expected that the price will be pushed up by more than 10%, even higher. It is difficult for the industry itself to digest the rising cost of raw material prices, which needs to be absorbed in every link of the industrial chain.

China’s magnetic material industry has been very mature, product costs are transparent, technology and equipment of production factors have been finalized, so the profit is small, besides, the ability to self-digest the cost of raw materials is very limited, hope customers in the industry chain need to give understanding and sympathy. Of course, for the industry and enterprises, they should also dig deeper and make some sacrifices which through fine management and the development of new processes, new technologies, and new products to digest some of the rising cost pressure of raw materials. At the same time, everyone should communicate actively, do a good job in explaining it to the clients and obtain the understanding and support, and form a consensus on overall response to the unfavorable situation caused by the increase in raw material prices, and jointly maintain the smoothly and healthy development of China’s manufacturing industry.

Magnetism and magnetic materials

• 2020-05-20

1、Magnetism and magnetic materials

2、Ferrite magnetic material

3、Samarium cobalt permanent magnetic material

4、Other magnetic materials

5、Comparison of properties of various magnetic materials

When it comes to magnetic materials, we have to talk about “magnetism” first. Experiments show that any substance can be more or less magnetized in the external magnetic field, but the degree of magnetization varies. According to their properties in the external magnetic field, substances can be divided into five categories: paramagnetic substances, diamagnetic substances, ferromagnetic substances, ferromagnetic substances, and antiferromagnetic substances:

Paramagnetic substance: a substance which, when moved closer to a magnetic field, is magnetized according to the direction of the field, but is so weak that it can only be measured by precise instruments. If the applied magnetic field is removed, the internal magnetic field will return to zero, resulting in no magnetism. Such as aluminum, oxygen, etc.

Diamagnetic substance: a substance with a negative magnetic susceptibility. When subjected to an external magnetic field, the molecule generates an induced electron circulation, which generates a magnetic moment opposite to the direction of the external magnetic field. In other words, the direction of the magnetic field after magnetization is opposite to the direction of the external magnetic field. All organic compounds are diamagnetic, graphite, lead, water, etc.

Ferromagnetic substance: it is a kind of material which is magnetized under the action of external magnetic field, and still can maintain its magnetized state even if the external magnetic field disappears. Iron, cobalt and nickel are all ferromagnetic substances.

Ferromagnetic material: macromagnetism is the same as ferromagnetism, only with a lower magnetic susceptibility. Typical ferromagnetic material is ferrite. They differ most significantly from ferromagnetic materials in their internal magnetic structures.

Antiferromagnetic substance: inside an antiferromagnetic substance, the spins of adjacent valence electrons tend to be in opposite directions. The material has a net magnetic moment of zero and produces no magnetic field. This material is less common, and most antiferromagnetic substances exist only at low temperatures. If the temperature is above a certain value, it usually becomes paramagnetic. For example, chromium, manganese and so on have antiferromagnetism.

We call paramagnetic and diamagnetic substances as weak magnetic substances, and ferromagnetic and ferrous magnetic substances as strong magnetic substances. The magnetic material that says normally is to point to strong magnetic material commonly. Magnetic materials can be divided into:

Soft magnetic material: the magnetic material with low coercivity and high permeability can achieve the maximum magnetization with the minimum external magnetic field. Soft magnetic materials are easy to magnetize and easy to demagnetize. For example: soft ferrite, amorphous nanocrystalline alloy.

Hard magnetic material: also called permanent magnetic material, it refers to the material that is difficult to be magnetized and difficult to be demagnetized once magnetized. Its main characteristic is that it has high coercivity, including rare earth permanent magnetic material, metal permanent magnetic material and permanent magnetic ferrite.

Functional magnetic materials: magnetostrictive materials, magnetic recording materials, magnetoresistance materials, magnetic bubble materials, magneto-optical materials and magnetic thin film materials.