Background, Problems and Strategies for Rare Earth Industry Integration

People have high expectations in the sustainable development of China's rare earth industry by founding some competitive and large-scaled rare earth companies out of merger. However, the reality of rare earth industry integration is not promising. This paper surveys the integration background of rare earth industry for clarifying the specific integration purpose applying related theories of monopolistic competition and corporate mergers. Some underlying problems in the rare earth industry integration in the fields of integration dominance, integrated links, integration methods and integrated mode are discussed based on analyzing rare earth industry integration process. We then suggest the industry integration strategy, that is, "corporate-led, full consideration to the interests of all parties concerned, integration in the application and separation stages of the industry chain, and creating conditions for the integration of rare earth mining areas".