稀土永磁行业月度跟踪：2月行业大幅跑赢基准，钕铁硼月均价受原料带动环比上行

Investment Rating - The industry investment rating is maintained at "Overweight" [2] Core Views - In February 2025, the rare earth permanent magnet industry saw a significant increase of 13%, outperforming the benchmark index (CSI 300) by 10.15 percentage points. The industry's valuation (TTM P/E ratio) rose from 81.66x at the beginning of the month to 92.28x, ending the month at the 98.6th percentile of its historical valuation range [4][19] - The upstream prices of rare earth minerals showed a notable increase in February 2025, with the average price of mixed rare earth carbonate rising by 11.16% month-on-month to 24,900 CNY/ton, and a year-on-year increase of 12.16% [5] - The demand in downstream sectors remains robust, particularly in the air conditioning and new energy vehicle markets, despite a temporary decline in air conditioning production due to the Spring Festival [11][12] Summary by Sections Industry Performance - The rare earth permanent magnet industry outperformed the benchmark index with a relative return of 4% over one month, 2% over three months, and 38% over twelve months. Absolute returns were 7%, 4%, and 51% respectively [3] Upstream Market - Significant month-on-month and year-on-year increases in prices for rare earth minerals, including a 6.55% rise in praseodymium-neodymium oxide to 435,000 CNY/ton and a 6.8% increase in praseodymium-neodymium mixed metal to 535,100 CNY/ton [6][9] - Heavy rare earth prices also showed resilience, with dysprosium oxide and dysprosium iron prices increasing by 3.99% and 4.41% respectively [7] Downstream Demand - The air conditioning sector experienced a production decline of 4.2% year-on-year in January 2025, attributed to the Spring Festival timing, but sales remained strong with an 8.7% increase in total sales [11] - The new energy vehicle sector continued to thrive, with production increasing by 28.96% year-on-year in January 2025 [12] Investment Recommendations - The report suggests that while the demand remains strong, the industry faces challenges such as overcapacity and the need for demand to absorb excess supply. The overall industry performance is still in a bottoming phase, and the current high valuation levels lack sufficient earnings support [13]