NEW YORK — Rare-earth prices are set to extend their decline from records this year as buyers including Toyota and General Electric scale back using the materials in their cars and windmills.
Prices for cerium and lanthanum, the most abundant rare-earth elements, will drop by 50 percent in 12 months, Christopher Ecclestone, an analyst at Hallgarten & Co. in New York, has forecast.
Neodymium and praseodymium, metals used in permanent rare-earth magnets, may fall as much as 15 percent, he said.
Makers of electric cars, wind turbines and oil-refining catalysts have sought to reduce use of the metals after China, which supplies more than 90 percent of the market, said in July 2010 that it would cut exports and clamp down on the industry. That boosted prices, encouraging mining companies — including Greenwood Village-based Molycorp — to develop new prospects and buyers to find alternatives.
