Neodymium Iron Boron Magnets 20160118

Analysis on the development trend of China NdFeB magnet in 2015-2020

The development direction of the neodymium iron boron magnet technology 
China introduced relevant policies to vigorously promote the development of the neodymium industry. It is expected that in the next few years the Ministry of science and technology will allocate funds with a total of RMB 3.5 hundred million to support the utilization of rare earth resources for wind power, electric vehicles, energy saving appliances, magnetic levitation train and other fields. The introduction of such national policies is undoubtedly the most powerful support of the future development of rare earth permanent magnet industry.

Analysis of neodymium iron boron magnet industry development trend
In recent years, given the further improvement of the comprehensive performance of the NdFeB permanent magnet, the NdFeB magnet has gradually replaced other magnetic materials and become the mainstream material of the market. Due to its high efficiency, energy saving, light weight, small size and other characteristics, the neodymium magnet has been widely used in wind power generation, new energy vehicles, energy saving appliances and other promising industries. With the increasing emphasis in energy saving and environmental protection, Neo magnet is facing numerous new development opportunities.

Prediction of neodymium iron boron magnet market competition pattern
With the rapid development of modern industry, the magnet has become an indispensable material of the modern industrial field. Strong magnet is a traditional sunrise industry in China, industry output value of which is now nearly RMB 3 billion, and is still increasing rapidly. As a branch of the strong magnet industry, the new functional neodymium permanent magnet material industry is in the high-end field of the industry, which has a promising market as a fast developing new entrant in recent years. Industrial strong magnet is the most mature product among new functional magnetic materials, which has become the preferred material for the underground interior landscape design, and expanded rapidly in the field of China magnetic levitation train, synchronizing the pace of the construction of maglev train. Given the demands from underground transportation facilities construction, such as urban tunnels, and underground pedestrian tunnels, etc, it is believed that the demands of industrial strong magnets will see a stable and quick growth in the future.

Magnet Manufacturer China Rare Earth Magnet Limited

Bonded Neodymium Iron Boron 

Bonded magnets appeared in 1970s, when the SmCo was already commercialized. Market condition of sintered permanent magnet is vigorous, but due to the difficulty of precision machining it into a special shape, and issues of cracking, corner and edge breakage, and problems in assembling, its application is limited. To solve the above problems, China manufacturers crashed the magnet, mixed it with plastic, and pressed it in magnetic field, which is probably the original manufacturing method of bonded magnet. Bonded NdFeB magnets have been widely applied for its various advantages, such as, low cost, high dimensional accuracy, high flexibility of shapes, good mechanical strength, light weight and so on, annual growth rate of which is up to 35% now. Since the appearance of NdFeB magnetic powder, the flexible bonded magnets have developed rapidly because of the high magnetic properties.

Advantages: high remanence, high coercivity and high energy product, high performance price ratio, high flexibility in size and minimum dimensions.

Sintered Neodymium Iron Boron

Based on the strength of magnetism and the coercivity, sintered neodymium permanent magnet material is decided into low coercive force N, middle coercivity M, high coercivity H, super high coercive force SH, ultra high coercivity UH, extra high coercive force EH, all together six types.
Production of sintered neodymium iron boron magnets is started with a powder metallurgy process. Smelted alloy will be made into powder and then pressed in magnetic field into blanks. Pressed blanks will be densified in inert gas or vacuum sintering. Last, in order to improve the coercivity of the magnet, aging heat treatment will usually be applied by China factories.

Sintered neodymium magnet material, with its excellent magnetic properties, are widely used in electronics, electrical machinery, medical equipment, toys, packaging, hardware machinery, aerospace and other fields. Most common products include permanent magnet motors, speakers, magnetic separators, computer magnetic disk drives, magnetic resonance imaging equipment, etc.

The industry expansion of industrial robot brings opportunities to neodymium magnet industry

NdFeB Permanent Magnet Manufacturer China Rare Earth Magnet Limited 

The fast rising of the labor costs has given rise to China's growing demand for industrial robots, which will also bring opportunities to the development of dynamic core neodymium magnet material of industrial robot.

According to historical data, China’s application ratio of robots in the industrial field is relatively low, leaving much room for growth in the future. Today, China's industrial robots use density is still lower than the global average, and substantially left behind by Japan, Korea, and Germany. South Korea’s use density of industrial robots is the world's highest one, with average of 395 units in per 10 thousand workers, while that in Japan and Germany were 339 units and 274 units, and only 23 units in China, less than half of the international average of 58 units. In 2012, the number of China's manufacturing workers were 42 million 620 thousand, if calculated according to the international average of 58 units, there shall be 247 thousand robots; if the avocation of 100 units per worker by the Ministry is implemented, China's industrial robots volume would reach 426 thousand units.

According to the 2014-2019 China neodymium iron boron permanent magnet material industry market analysis and investment forecast report released by CINIC, at present, the price of a 165kgs welding robot is about $168.6 thousand yuan (foreign) to 29.9 million yuan (domestic). The cost of the servo motor in it accounts for about 15%, i.e. 25.4 thousand yuan (foreign) to 42.8 thousand yuan (domestic). According to public information, the cost of neodymium magnets in the permanent magnet synchronous servo motor takes approximately 20%. Based on such percentage, NdFeB material cost is about 5095 yuan (foreign) to 8563 yuan (domestic). Currently, the raw material price of NdFeB N35SH is about 220 yuan / kg, which means the consumption of NdFeB is about 23 kgs (foreign) to 39 kgs (domestic). Taking into account the high gross profits of imported servo motor used in domestic robots, we believe that 25kgs of high-performance neodymium magnets will be consumed for one single 165kg welding robot. According to the International federation of robotics statistics, the current growth rate of global industrial robots is about 27%. Industrial robot sales have increased in all major global markets, among which China market grew by more than a half.

Meanwhile, with the rapid development of “internet + manufacture”, Industry 4.0 possibly will enter into Chinese manufacturing with Industry 3.0. The growing space of robot and automatic technology is vast. Policy support and industrial investment become important driving factors. Organizations expect that the demand of industrial robot is 63-170 sets from 2015 to 2020. Especially automobile areas, which cover 60% of the application of industrial robot, hopefully will development dramatically in the future. Development of China’s robot industry also brings better opportunity to application expansion of neodymium permanent magnet industry.