According to the Baotou Industry and Information Bureau, from January to February 2025, the industrial added value of large-scale enterprises in Baotou City grew by 16.0% year-on-year, an acceleration of 1.7 percentage points compared to the full year of the previous year. This growth rate exceeded the national average (5.9%) by 10.1 percentage points and the Inner Mongolia regional average (5.8%) by 10.2 percentage points, marking 54 consecutive months of double-digit growth.
From January to February, among Baotou City’s six key industries, the added value of the rare earth industry increased by 8.0%, steel by 3.4%, aluminum by 8.2%, equipment manufacturing by 44.7%, electricity by 8.1%, and crystalline silicon photovoltaics by 19.2%. Notably, the three flagship industries—rare earth, crystalline silicon photovoltaics, and onshore wind power equipment—collectively drove a 7.4 percentage point increase in the added value of large-scale industries, contributing 46.1% to the overall growth of large-scale industrial output.
During the same period, of the 30 key monitored products in Baotou City, 15 saw year-on-year production increases. Specifically, rare earth compound output grew by 9.6%, rare earth magnetic material production surged by 66.2%, polycrystalline silicon output increased by 73.3%, monocrystalline silicon production rose by 113.4%, ferroalloy output jumped by 1.9 times, and aluminum production grew by 10.4%.
Common rare earth compounds include rare earth oxides such as cerium oxide and neodymium oxide, rare earth chlorides like cerium chloride and lanthanum chloride, rare earth carbonates such as lanthanum carbonate, and rare earth fluorides like lanthanum fluoride. These compounds have a wide range of applications. In the metallurgical industry, they are used for deoxidation and desulfurization, improving steel properties; in petrochemicals, they serve as catalysts to enhance reaction efficiency; in the glass and ceramics industry, they are employed for decolorization, coloring, and clarification, while also improving the strength and toughness of ceramics; in the electronics industry, they are essential raw materials for manufacturing electronic components and magnetic materials; and in the new energy sector, rare earth oxides are used to produce electrode materials for fuel cells.
Rare earth magnetic materials, with their excellent properties such as high remanence, high coercivity, and high magnetic energy product, have extensive applications. In the electronics field, they are used to manufacture hard disk drives, mobile phone vibration motors, earphones, and other components; in new energy vehicles, they are critical materials for drive motors, enhancing motor efficiency and power density; in industrial automation, they are utilized in magnetic sensors and relays for precise control and signal transmission; and in the medical field, they are employed in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment to obtain high-resolution internal images of the human body, aiding disease diagnosis.
