Abstract
With the development of science and technology, more and more attention is paid to rare earth. What’s more, it has been ranked as a kind of strategic resources by many countries. Nowadays, it has also been widely applied to the high-tech industry, such as the electron, the communication and the automobile. China plays an indispensable role in international rare earth trade since she is abundant in rare earth. However, what she has received is not equivalent to her monopoly sources superiority. Coupled with the increase in the rare earth’s value is the decrease in the rare earth’s price. That contributes to the threat which Chinese rare earth industry is facing. From the perspective of market structure, rare earth’s market should have been a monopoly market, but today it is in a situation that it is filled with excessive competition and low-price sales instead. This thesis discusses the basic reasons for such a low price, including natural, economic and policy aspects. And on a basis of comparison and analysis on the price patterns of the general scarce mineral resources, we conclude that the main reasons for the low price are the excessive production, the fierce price game originated from excessive competition among rare earth enterprises and over-concentrated destination of export. Eventually, we put forward some suggestions on how to realize the value of Chinese rare earth, such as controlling the quantity of export, founding an international cartel organization, avoiding monopoly and performing the function of the industry association.
【Key Words】Rare earth export; Excessive competition; Monopoly; Game
