Chinese NdFeB magnet market to witness increasing demand in 2020

Asian Metal: Hello, Mr. Tang! Thanks for accepting Asian Metal's interview. Would you please give a brief introduction of your company firstly?

Mr. Tang: Established in 2012, Zhejiang Sheensen Magnetics Technology Co. Ltd. locates in Tianzi Lake industry of Anji County, Zhejiang province. We are focus on the production, research & development and sales of NdFeB magnet. We could produce high performance NdFeB magnets including N50, N52, 48H, 45H, 45SH, 42SH, 35UH, 38UH and 40UH in large scale and steadily. We also could design and produce products according to clients' requirement.

Asian Metal: Would you like to introduce your working experience?

Mr. Tang: I graduated from Powder metallurgy major of Hefei Industry University in 1998. I was employed by a famous listed company of NdFeB magnet industry in 2000 as a workshop technician at first and then was promoted as chief engineer, deputy GM of bonded magnet and finally material and mechanical processing chief engineer of rough sintered NdFeB magnet. I left the company in 2014 and worked as chief engineer for 5 years in another two enterprises, one of which is also listed company. I joined Zhejiang Sheensen Magnetics Technology Co. Ltd. in this March.

Asian Metal: As we all know, the competition among NdFeB magnet suppliers is rather furious. China owns an annual production of more than 300,000t now while the annual demand is only around 150,000. Could you please share how your company survived and developed in competition?

Mr. Tang: Our GM used to be a foreign trade salesman. He is very good at sales and extremely sensitive about customers' demand. We also value the research and development of new products and new technology. We emphasized our advantage of designing and producing products according to clients' requirement. We developed superimposed magnetic product in order to reduce the consumption of magnet in motors. We cooperated with Zhejiang University to develop nanometer coating technology in order to make sure our NdFeB magnet could be antiseptic. We are promoting a new technology named multi-polar magnetic ring at present. Our company developed very sharply over the past years in spite of the furious competition.

Asian Metal: As far as I know, your company began to enlarge NdFeB magnet production capacity since last year. May I know your motivation?

Mr. Tang: Our NdFeB magnet annual production capacity is lower than 2,000t as we don't have enough room, which put a brake on our development. Therefore, we decide to enlarge production. We are focuses on the construction of the first stage project at present and plan to install new equipments from next March or April.

Asian Metal: Would you please share your develop plan?

Mr. Tang: Our ultimate target is to increase our NdFeB magnet annual production capacity to around 3,500t in the coming 3,4 years. In the first stage, we plan to build two buildings till late 2020, including a main office building with 4 floors and a 13 meter high's workshop to produce rough NdFeB magnets. We have finished more than 50% of the construction of the main office building. In the second stage, we are going to establish another workshop with 5 floors till 2022 for testing, packaging and processing.

Asian Metal: Current Chinese PrNd mischmetal mainstream prices slid by around 11% from early this year to around RMB358,000-363,000/t (USD50,780-51,489/t) EXW T/T 30 days. Following the dropping PrNd mischmetal prices, Chinese NdFeB magnet prices were on the decline over the past three months. May I know whether you have lowered magnet prices recently?

Mr. Tang: We adjust magnet prices frequently for the majority of domestic buyers due to the information transparency and the furious competition among suppliers. Generally speaking, we don't adjust prices for long term orders and some foreign clients unless rare earth raw material prices fluctuate more than 5%.

Asian Metal: It would be great if you could share your prediction of rare earth raw material price trend in the coming year.

Mr. Tang: In my opinion, current rare earth raw material prices already hover at low levels. These prices already have sunk to the lowest over the past years and are very closed to smelters' production cost. Although it's hard for these prices to pick up due to the dim economy and the trade frictions between China and U.S., I believe these prices don't have much room to decline in the near term.

Asian Metal: The demand for NdFeB magnet from automobile industry was weak this year. May I know your prediction of automobile industry's prospects?

Mr. Tang: Although the traditional automobile industry is dim, I believe NdFeB magnet consumption from automobile industry would keep increasing slightly in the coming years as the development of electric vehicles would be the future trend and the consumption of NdFeB magnet of electric vehicles is more than that in traditional cars. Furthermore, following the boost of automation and intelligence, NdFeB magnet demand from robot and servo motor would increase rapidly. NdFeB magnet consumption from some new fields such as high speed rail and motor train is also expected to increase in the coming years.

Asian Metal: Thanks for your time! I wish every success of your business!