Asian Metal meets Transoceanic Development

On the morning of February 3rd, 2015, Vivian Pang, Senior analyst of Asian Metal, met Soh Gim Hoe, the Senior Executive of Transoceanic Development (Singapore) Pte. Ltd, in Beijing and exchanged opinions on rare earth market.

The core business of Transoceanic Development (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is in freight forwarding & logistics, and the company has recently expanded its business into physical commodity trading. Gim pays attention to rare earth market trend. Vivian gave a detail introduction of current rare earth market trend to Gim. According to Vivian, rare earth prices have soared up sharply in H1 of 2011, which has resulted in reduced downstream demand. Then, rare earth prices have kept showing downward tendencies in general since H2 of 2011. The majority of separations plants have halted production since December of 2014. Suppliers are complaining about their thin margins. Some suppliers, who have already been in deficit and are not going to resume production in the near term, are reluctant to reduce inventories. Therefore, the markets for PrNd, dysprosium and terbium related products witness tight supply and increasing prices. However, the markets see slow buying activities due to inactive downstream industries.

Gim showed his appreciation to Vivian and introduced their business development plan. Meanwhile, Gim expressed his highly recognition to Asian Metal’s information and noted that they are interested in the upcoming 7th International Rare Earth Summit, which will be held on May 14-15, 2015 in Chongqing, and conveyed that he will attend the summit to communicate with participants.