Platts to launch market-first 'alternative-supply-chain' rare earth elements assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, will launch first-of-their-kind rare earth elements price assessments focused on mine-to-industry alternative supply chains, effective March 31, 2026.

The four new monthly CIF North America assessments will be for oxide forms of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), dysprosium, terbium and samarium that include mined or refined material originating from the following countries: Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, France, Greenland, India, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, the US and Vietnam. Other delivery locations and FOB indications may be normalized.

Platts will periodically review the list of origins, which could be subject to change based on geopolitical or trade developments. Platts will notify market participants of any changes or updates to the list of countries included.

The launch of these assessments comes as roughly 60% of existing global rare earth mine production and 90% of refining and processing capability is concentrated in China. Global market participants have increasingly expressed interest in being able to differentiate the cost of such rare earth materials from material sourced from other origins.

Specifications are as follows. Other quantities or qualities may be normalized:

The new assessments were originally proposed on a delivered duty-paid basis, and all with 99.5% minimum TREM content and 25-kilogram minimum lot sizes. This proposal was published in a subscriber note on Jan. 13, available here.

Feedback from market participants indicated that a CIF delivery basis was more relevant, higher-purity TREO specifications were warranted for dysprosium and terbium oxide, and larger minimum lot sizes were desired for all. Delivery within 30 days originally was proposed, but feedback indicated that up to 45 days was appropriate to account for the extended trade routes for some material transported to North America.

The assessments will be published on the last business day of each month, following the Platts US holiday calendar and reflecting a 12 pm US ET price assessment timestamp. They will appear on S&P Global Energy Core, on fixed pages PMA0045 and MTL0045, in Metals Daily, and in the Platts pricing database. Platts invites comments and questions to metalsamericas@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.