Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Global and Chinese Permanent Magnet Industry Report, 2012“ report to their offering.
Permanent magnet is mainly divided into two categories: ferrite and rare earth magnet. Rare earth magnet mainly includes NdFeB. Due to the acute fluctuation of rare earth prices in 2011, NdFeB price correspondingly experienced wide fluctuations. The average price of NdFeB was RMB 106 / kg in January 2011, then rose sharply to RMB 615 / kg in July, but slumped to RMB 215 / kg in December. The average price in the third quarter of 2012 was RMB 173 / kg.
The market prospects of HDD and ODD, which are the most important application fields of bonded NdFeB, look gloomy. Popular electronic products, such as tablet PC, which is gradually occupying traditional PC market, don’t use HDD and ODD. Traditional PC is HDD and ODD’s main market, and the market may decline continually.
HDD shipment was about 620.652 million in 2011, but was only 442.32 million in the first three quarters of 2012, and is predicted to be only 582.31 million in 2012, down 6.2 percent year-on-year. The HDD shipment is estimated to decline to 536.82 million in 2015, down 14 percent compared with 2011. The ODD shipment was about 495 million in 2011, and it is expected to decline to 425 million in 2015.
Other areas, such as frequency conversion air conditioner, e-bike and loudspeaker, are facing decline too. These areas are more sensitive to price, ferrite is competent in these areas too, and the cost is much lower.
NdFeB is applied widely in automobile market, especially EPS. It is estimated global EPS motor shipment will reach 33.9 million in 2012, and run up to 42.6 million in 2014, up 25.7 percent. The application scope of EPS is stretching from high-end to low-end vehicles, so the market prospect is very good. But most EPS motors are produced by Japanese companies, who will purchase local magnet with priority.
