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Rare Earth Industry in Baotou Hi-tech Zone Quickened the Pace of Transition & Upgrading

For the rare earth industry which is now in an inactive period, the recent benefits granted to the Rare Earth hi-tech Zone brought new hope to the development of the entire industry like a waft of spring breeze.

In June this year, the rare earth industry transition & upgrading pilot implementation plan of Baotou City received approval from the Finance Ministry and the MIIT. Within 3 years, our city will receive capital support of nearly 1 billion yuan, by the end of 2017, efforts will be made to build Baotou into the biggest rare earth new material, and terminal application technology R&D and industrialization demonstration base in the nation. Among 33 rare earth projects being granted approval support, 29 are located inside the high-tech zone.

“As the only state-level hi-tech zone nationwide named after rare earth, the Rare earth High-tech Zone will play the role of main force in the process of this time’s pilot plan implementation.” said An Sihu, Director of the High-tech Zone Rare Earth Industry Development Bureau, the pilot plan put forward a number of key tasks including driving forward big group construction, speeding up transition & upgrading of key enterprises, cultivating new application enterprises etc, the High-tech Zone will quicken the pace of transition & upgrading of rare earth industry, and blaze a new trail for the development of domestic rare earth industry.

Inside the display hall of Baotou Tianhe Magnets Co., Ltd in the Rare Earth Applied Industry Park, neodymium iron boron permanent magnet and samarium cobalt permanent magnet samples of different specifications are on display.

Gan Mei, Director of the company’s Management Department, said proudly: “Despite the small size of our products, they have great functions! These products are used in hi-tech fields such as wind power DC motor, hybrid power vehicle, electric vehicle, space and aviation, computer and medicine, all of them are developed and manufactured by ourselves, export of these products made of high performance rare earth permanent magnet materials reached close to 100 million yuan in the first half of this year alone.”

The reporter learned that currently the R&D and process upgrading projects for 12 new products’ of Baotou Tianhe Magnets Co., Ltd all fulfilled industrialization, up till now 6 patents have been authorized. The Company’s R&D Center focuses on tackling the zero heavy rare earth technology, and successfully accomplished 48H zero heavy rare earth. By relying on the advantage of this technology, Tianhe Company has become strategic supplier of famous European auto parts manufacturers, and entered Japan’s electric motor supplier list for new energy electric, and hybrid power vehicles.

“The main task for Baotou in this time’s transition & upgrading is first to properly develop new material, and then extend to its industrial chains. Rare earth magnetic material is a representative of new materials, for it can create greater magnetism with smaller size, the technology in China is relatively mature, in the future we can expand and consolidate the industry through transition & upgrading, and develop a batch of self-owned patents among Baotou enterprises, develop products with patent technologies truly owned by ourselves, in this way Made in China 2025 will develop its foundation.” An Sihu said.

On May 19, the State Council printed and distributed “Made in China 2025”, which made deployment for comprehensive promotion and implementation of manufacture power strategy. Rare earth boasts superior optical, electronic and magnetic physical properties, and plays a key role in smart manufacture. Through implementing rare earth new material reward policy, the High-tech Zone cultivates strategic emerging industries, guides and encourages enterprises to develop and manufacture rare earth functional materials with self-owned intellectual property rights and market competitiveness along with application products with high added value.