Lynas plans month-long Malaysia plant shutdown, confident inventory can meet orders

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Lynas halts plant operations

Highlights

Lynas will shut down its Malaysia plant for a month for electrical inspections and maintenance, with production expected to decline in the December quarter.
Lynas can fulfil customer orders using its inventory even if NdPr production falls from 2,082 tonnes in the September quarter.
Construction of Lynas’s heavy rare earth processing facility in Malaysia is underway, underscoring Malaysia’s importance to the company’s global operations.

This article was translated from the original. Read the original version by our correspondent here.

Shutdown schedule and production outlook

As reported by The Edge Malaysia, citing Lynas’s quarterly report on Thursday, the planned shutdown at the facility near Kuantan is for electrical inspections and maintenance work carried out every three years, including work on the plant’s kiln.

The company expects production at the facility in the three months ending December to be lower than in the September quarter. Bloomberg also quoted acting chief executive officer Pol Le Roux as saying the company can still fulfil customer orders using its existing inventory.

In the September quarter, production of neodymium-praseodymium, or NdPr, rose to 2,082 tonnes from 1,857 tonnes in the previous three months as operations recovered from earlier processing challenges. Total rare earth oxide production also increased to 4,254 tonnes from 3,481 tonnes in the June quarter.

Expanding processing capacity in Malaysia

Separately, Lynas said construction of its expanded heavy rare earth processing facility in Malaysia is underway, with current work focused on buildings housing solvent extraction operations, electrical controls and the control room.

The company is also expanding its facilities in Malaysia to produce more specialty rare earth materials used in magnets, medical equipment and electronics. This underscores Malaysia’s continued importance to Lynas’s processing operations, even as its existing plant faces a temporary maintenance shutdown.

In our earlier report on U.S. companies’ interest in the rare earth sector in Malaysia, we discussed how more than a dozen firms are assessing investment opportunities, including mining projects with local partners and investments in processing facilities. The article also explained that efforts to build alternative supply chains outside China are gaining momentum, supported by critical minerals cooperation initiatives and Malaysia’s push to attract foreign capital and technology.

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