Asian Metal visits Albemarle (Guangzhou) Office, Qingyuan Jiahe Rare Metal, JPMF Guangdong and Osram GmBH

During May 23-24th, Vivian Pang, rare earth market analyst of Minor Metals department of Asian Metal visited Albemarle (Guangzhou) office, Qingyuan Jiahe Rare Metal Co., Ltd, JPMF Guangdong Co., Ltd and Osram GmBH, and was welcomed by the four enterprises.

On the morning of May 23, Asian Metal visited Albemarle (Guangzhou) Office and exchanged opinions with Michelle Ma, who is incharge of purchasing, about rare earth and FCC catalytic markets. Albemarle is one of the largest chemicals producers and consumes around 100-150 tons of lanthanum oxide 99.9% per month at present.

On the afternoon of May 23th, Asian Metal visited Qingyuan Jiahe Rare Metal Co., Ltd., and was warmly received by the chairman, Yang Qingyu and the GM, Cai Xiyuan. Qingyuan Jiahe Rare Metal Co., Ltd was founded in March of 1996. Being supported by abundant rare earth resources of Qingyuan city’s surrounding areas, the company is already one of the major separation plants of Guangdong Province at present. In August of 2008, the company signed acquiring contract with Guangdong Rising Nonferrous Metal Group, which is a good-sized and stated-owned enterprise in Guangdong province, and Guangdong Rising Nonferrous Metal Group owns 61% shares. Cooperating with Guangdong Rising Nonferrous Metal Group brings a steady stream of momentum to the company. Mr. Yang and Mr. Cai expressed that rare earth market sees flat tendencies and declining prices. Meanwhile, purchasers continue to hold wait-and-see attitudes. Their plant will consider to cease production if rare earth oxides demand remains soft in the coming months.

Vivian Pang visited JPMF Guangdong Co., Ltd on the morning of May 24th. Zhang Xusheng, magnets sales manager, and Ou Zhongheng, Manager of Smco rare earth permanent magnetic materials department, guided Vivian Pang to visit their magnets workshop and exchanged opinions on current NdFeB magnets and rare earth markets. Mr. Zhang also claimed that they sign contracts with their suppliers according to Asian Metal’s prices when they purchase rare earth raw materials. JPMF Guangdong Co., Ltd was established in 1975 and is currently one of the largest hard ferrite magnet manufacturers in China. JPMF’s major products include hard ferrite magnets and soft ferrite magnets. Most of their products are supplied to world recognized motor manufacturers in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and U.S.A for micro-motors in automobiles, OA facilities, IT parts, power tools, household appliances, and other industries.

On the afternoon of May 24th, Asian Metal came to Osram GmBH (China) Co., Ltd, which is one the most creative illuminative company, and meet with Shi Xiaodong, Global Senior Purchasing Director, and Angela Lu, Project Manager. The two sides had a discussion about current phosphor powder and illumination markets. According to Mr. Shi, their production is similar with that of last year while demand of fluorescent lamps from EU decreases and their company sold their fluorescent lamps plants in Yingxing, Jiangsu Province. The company is also establishing a LED assembly plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.