Japan Rare Metal Import Totally Decreases in October

Japanese rare earth import decreased by 39% to 508 tonnes in October from a year earlier, according to the trade statistics by Ministry of Finance. The import also decreased for potassium fluorotantalate, cerium oxide and antimony in October, those which are used for electronic materials.

Japanese rare earth import totaled 5,381 tonnes for January-October 2008, decreasing by 27% year-on-year. The import kept y/y low during January-June when rare earth price stayed high. However, the import volume hasn’t recovered though rare earth price sharply declined after summer.

As to neodymium, a main material for neodymium-iron-boron magnet, global supply and demand balance became loose since Chinese producers expanded their output as long as neodymium price surged. The market price declined and Japanese neodymium users shrank the procurement with a concern whether the price lowers more. Another background seems that neodymium is imported rather as ferroalloy recently.

Cerium oxide import decreased by 49% year-on-year in October, one of rare earths and used as a polishing agent for liquid crystal panels. The demand seems impacted by the adjustment in liquid crystal television market.

Potassium fluorotantalate import decreased by 55% in October from a year earlier, which is an intermediate material for tantalum. Tantalum is used for capacitors inside small digital appliances such as cellular phones. The import sum for January-October downed by 22% year-on-year when cell phone sales are slow in Japan.

Antimony import decreased by 21% in October from a year ago, used as fire retardant for plastics.