Global Lanthanum Market Outlook to 2026

Lanthanum, a metal that’s soft enough to be cut with a butter-knife, is a silvery-white ductile, malleable metal of the lanthanide series of elements. About 10 kg of lanthanum in the form of trivalent lanthanides is used up in making a single hybrid electric car. Like most rare earth elements, the metal is not really all that rare, just tough to isolate. Lanthanum’s abundance is about 32 parts per million in the Earth's crust.

According to Researcher, the global lanthanum market is expected to witness growth at a considerable rate during the forecast period. The major factor responsible for the global lanthanum market's growth would be the increasing demand for lanthanum compounds in electronics, hybrid vehicle manufacturing, and the automotive industry. Lanthanum is also widely used in making FCC catalysts employed in the production of high octane gasoline that "burns"slowly, increasing the fuel efficiency. It has a wide range of applications in hydrogen storage, fiber optics, phosphor lamp coatings, cigar lighters, cathode materials and vacuum tubes making, and lenses for cameras and telescopes. The ion La3+ is used as a biological tracer for Ca2+, and radioactive lanthanum has been tested for use in cancer treatment. However, government policies and regulations, Mining restrictions, environmental risks involving production, depleting reserves, along with lanthanum products’ toxicology, restrain the global lanthanum market’s growth.

Asia-Pacific dominated the global lanthanum market due to the availability of raw materials. The market is very competitive due to the presence of a large number of lanthanum metal processing facilities. The number of end-user industries with lanthanum applications is also high in the region. China and Japan are the key players in the lanthanum market in Asia-Pacific. However, North America’s decreasing dependency on Chinese exports is likely to make North American market grow faster.

The global lanthanum market is fragmented.

Major players

in the market were found to be Avalon Advanced Materials, Merck KGaA, Cathay Advanced Materials, Beijing Cerametek Materials, and Metall Rare Earth, among others.

The Haber-Bosch process is a method used since the beginning of the 20th century to produce Ammonia, a chemical of immense importance to several industries. While the current approach involves the use of ruthenium, an expensive and scarce metal, as a catalyst to trigger the necessary reactions, Prof Hideo Hosono and colleagues from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan, have recently developed a new strategy to produce Ammonia using lanthanum in combination with Nickel in July 2020. Lanthanum is relatively cheaper and much more abundant when compared to ruthenium.

Rare earth producer Lynas Corp has identified more light and heavy rare earth at depths previously not investigated below the main orebody at its Mt Weld mine in Western Australia. The company being the world’s only significant producer of rare earth outside China, produces neodymium, praseodymium, lanthanum, cerium, and mixed heavy rare earth.

Global Lanthanum Market report provides deep insights into the current and future state of the lanthanum market across various regions. The study comprehensively analyzes the lanthanum market by segmenting based on type (Metal, Compounds (Lanthanum Oxide, Lanthanum Chloride, Lanthanum Boride, Lanthanum Acetate, Lanthanum Carbonate, and Others), application (Filament Glass Coatings, Fluidic Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Catalysts, Hydrogen Storage, Battery and Non-Battery Alloys, Electrical and Electronics, and Others), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle-East and Africa). The report examines the market drivers and restraints, along with the impact of Covid-19 on the market’s growth, in detail. The study covers & includes emerging market trends, developments, opportunities, and challenges in the industry. This report also covers extensively researched competitive landscape sections with profiles of major companies, including their market shares and projects.

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