Material Empire

Hearing what Miyagawa said, Changyou Yongji didn't look relaxed, he bowed slightly to Miyagawa, and said: "Mr. Miyagawa, this time is really different, I think we can't use the inventory , but also need to take advantage of the low price to increase reserves in large quantities.”

"The price is low?" Miyagawa was taken aback, "Changyou-kun, didn't you just say that the price has tripled?"

"Yes, it has already tripled. But according to my discussion with some market analysis experts, they believe that the price of heavy rare earths is likely to rise even more in the future, and it is not impossible to rise to more than 10 times the current price. Impossible." Changyou Yongsi said.

"Why?" Miyagawa was a little confused. He is actually not a bureaucrat. He has always been very concerned about the company's operating conditions and the external environment. It's just that things about rare earths are changing too fast, and he can't keep up.

Changyou Yongji said: "This reason is very complicated to say, but there is a simple fact. As soon as I say it, everyone will understand. This time, it is the China Daqin Group that is responsible for the rectification of heavy rare earths in southern China. The Chinese government has put the rare earth The management rights of the company were taken back from the hands of the three major foreign trade companies, and were fully granted to the Daqin Group."

"Daqin Group!" Technical Director Sadao Hirano almost jumped up, "You mean the Daqin Group whose chairman is Qin Hai?"

"Exactly, our procurement personnel in Yunjiang Province, China, saw Qin Hai lead the soldiers to the mine to seize it." Changyou Yongsi said in a calm tone. He believed that Hirano Sadao could understand the mystery. .

"Soga!" Sadao Hirano gasped, turned his head to Miyagawa Masa, and said, "Mr. Miyagawa, I now understand why Qin Hai exchanged our patents for neodymium-iron-boron with dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy patents." .”

When Qin Hai sent samples of dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy to Sadao Hirano in the capital, Sadao Hirano immediately rushed back to Japan to conduct comprehensive physical and chemical tests on the samples. The test results show that, first of all, the composition of this alloy does contain a large amount of dysprosium and terbium, and the content of elements such as neodymium and samarium is much lower than that of neodymium-iron-boron and samarium-cobalt alloys, that is to say, this is indeed a new type of rare earth Magnetic materials are not an upgraded version of traditional materials. Secondly, the residual magnetic induction intensity, coercive force, maximum magnetic energy product, Curie temperature and other important indicators of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy are better than those of NdFeB, which is obviously a very promising material.

As for the price of dysprosium and terbium elements used in dysprosium-terbium-iron alloys is higher than that of neodymium, this problem does not bother Sadao Hirano too much, because compared with the price of finished magnetic materials, the cost of dysprosium and terbium in raw materials is affordable, of course , which is below the current rare earth price level.

Based on this understanding, Chunshan Company quickly reached a patent exchange agreement with Daqin Group, exchanging the other party's dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy patents with the neodymium-iron-boron patents. Patent exchange means that both parties can produce each other's patents separately, and can further develop on the basis of each other's patents. In the view of Chunshan Company, the advent of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy will greatly reduce the market value of NdFeB, and it is very cost-effective to exchange an outdated patent for a promising patent.

But Chunshan Company guessed the beginning, but not the end. Just before the ink on the patent swap agreement was dry, the Daqin Group actually obtained the exclusive right to operate rare earths from the Chinese government, and restricted the export of heavy rare earths, including dysprosium and terbium, under the pretext of rectification. keep climbing.

If this situation continues, although Chunshan Company has the patent of dysprosium and terbium ferroalloy, what kind of tricks can Spring Mountain play if it cannot get dysprosium and terbium? In addition, if the prices of dysprosium and terbium really rise by 10 times, compared with NdFeB, dysprosium-terbium-iron alloys will have no advantage in cost performance at all. Downstream manufacturers also have to consider the cost when choosing permanent magnet materials. Who can afford such an expensive thing?

If it were replaced by another person and company to rectify rare earths, Chunshan Company can believe that this is only a temporary action and will not last long. But knowing that it was the Daqin Company that did this, and that Qin Hai, as a chairman, went into battle naked and personally went to seal up the mine. If there was no conspiracy, no one would believe it. Sadao Hirano can gamble with his head that Qin Hai's rectification of heavy rare earths in southern China is the result of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloys.

"Qin Hai is so dishonest!" Sadao Hirano said angrily, "He clearly dug a trap for us to jump in, and cheated us of our neodymium with a patent for a non-promising dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy. Iron boron patent."

"Dysprosium-terbium-ferroalloy is not without a future, it just has no future for us, but in the hands of Qin Hai, it has a great future. He monopolizes the production of dysprosium and terbium, which means that he is the only one in the world who can It can provide sufficient and cheap terbium-dysprosium-iron alloy materials." Miyagawa said, frowning.

"In this way, our NdFeB materials will also be suppressed. He can reduce the price of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy so low that there is no market for NdFeB. But we cannot get dysprosium and terbium, so we cannot compete with him at all. "Sales Director Saburo Okazaki analyzed angrily. The same method has been used countless times by Chunshan Company on others, but no one thought that this time they were tricked into their own heads.

"Can we get dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide from Turkey?" Miyagawa asked Nagatomo Eiji.

Eiji Changtomo shook his head helplessly and said: "Impossible, the two xenotime mines in Turkey have been closed, and it will take at least a year to resume production, and relying solely on orders for dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide cannot keep them profitable. , so they will not be willing to recover."

"Damn Chinese!" Okazaki Saburo cursed viciously.

Changyou Yongsi looked at Miya Chuanzheng, and swallowed the words again. There are some things that cannot be taken as medicine for regret, and it is just a waste of time to say anything more.

In fact, the two xenotime mines in Turkey did not need to be closed. When the international rare earth price plummeted, they called Spring Mountain and some other rare earth users, hoping that these companies could help raise the price of rare earth so that they could stop their losses. Their reason at the time was that the world cannot rely on China alone to provide rare earths, which is extremely detrimental to the stability of the rare earth market.

However, as a buyer, how could Chunshan Company accept such a proposal? They even took some measures to induce the price of rare earth in China to drop further. As a result, the two Turkish xenotime mines suffered huge losses and could only declare bankruptcy in the end. Due to the low international price of rare earths, no one is willing to take over, so the two mines were abandoned.

The main products of these two mines in Turkey are rare earth yttrium, lanthanum, and cerium. They can also produce a small amount of dysprosium and terbium, but they only exist as by-products.

There are 17 kinds of rare earth elements in total. These 17 kinds of elements will get a unified title because they belong to the same group on the periodic table of elements and can be associated in mineralization. Most rare earth mines can produce a variety of rare earths, but the proportion of each rare earth is different. Light rare earth mines can also produce heavy rare earths, but their content is not as high as that of heavy rare earth mines, so it is impossible to produce heavy rare earths exclusively, but only light rare earths, with heavy rare earths existing as by-products.

Qin Hai's insidiousness lies in that he keeps the price of light rare earths at a low level, so that the rare earth mines in other countries whose main business is light rare earths run bankrupt. As a result, the supply of heavy rare earths on the market will be interrupted, and we can only rely on the unique ion-adsorption type heavy rare earth mines in southern China to provide products.

At present, due to Qin Hai's manipulation, the prices of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide have indeed risen, but it is still impossible to resume production of rare earth mines in Turkey, Brazil, and the United States. A huge mine, can't it be reopened to produce some by-products? If these mines had not been closed in the first place, but they were still producing now, it would be okay. However, it will cost too much to resume production in a mine that has been closed. The most terrible thing is, in case you spend a lot of money to resume production, and the Chinese lower the price of heavy rare earths, who do you ask for reason?

Dysprosium oxide at US$50 or even US$500 per kilogram is a heavy burden for Spring Mountain, but for a mine that mainly focuses on light rare earths, it is a small business that is not worth doing at all. This is the embarrassment of Chunshan Company.

Miyagawa also thought about these issues. He didn't believe that the Chinese government could fully control rare earths, especially when China urgently needs a large amount of foreign exchange, it is impossible to restrict the export of rare earths. Unexpectedly, a character like Qin Hai appeared out of nowhere. He has enough capital to integrate rare earth resources, and at the same time has the core technology to realize the deep processing of rare earth. In this way, he can turn the export of rare earth raw materials into the export of rare earth deep-processing products, which relieves the pressure of export to earn foreign exchange.

In the face of such an opponent, Chunshan Company can no longer have a fluke mentality. If it wants to maintain its presence in the field of dysprosium-terbium-ferroalloy, it must, as Changyou Yongji said, quickly increase the price before it reaches the peak. It is not to reduce the reserve, but to rely on this stock to compete with Qin Hai for the permanent magnet material market in the future.

"Mr. Hirano, how far has your research on dysprosium and terbium ferroalloy progressed? How much dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide do you estimate the company will need to consume in the next few years?" Miyagawa asked Sadao Hirano.

"We have developed three new dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy technologies on the basis of Chinese patents, and their performances are far superior to those of NdFeB. They are fully expected to be applied to disk drives and automobile motors. According to our It is estimated that in the next three years, our company will need at least 600 tons of dysprosium oxide and 100 tons of terbium oxide to produce dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy." Sadao Hirano replied seriously.