#62Sm

Samarium Price

Light Rare EarthExport Licence

Key component of SmCo permanent magnets.

Main trade forms: Oxide (Sm₂O₃)
Available from: CN, AU

Last update: Apr 4, 2026
6 records

Retail Reference

$3,867/kg

Metal 99.5% · 8 g

Luciteria · US · Apr 4, 2026

Bulk Benchmark

No commodity benchmark available

Export LicenceChinese export licence required for Samarium in all controlled forms.Regulatory Tracker →

MOFCOM/GAC Announcement No. 18/2025 (effective 4 April 2025) controls all samarium forms (metal, oxide, alloys, compounds, and SmCo permanent magnets) under item 1C907 [2]. Controls apply to all countries on a case-by-case licensing basis.

China’s expanded October 2025 measures (Nos. 55 to 58, 61, 62) are suspended until 28 November 2026 [3], but the underlying No. 18/2025 controls remain fully in force throughout the suspension window.

Applications

Application	Role	Significance
SmCo permanent magnets	SmCo₅ and Sm₂Co₁₇ alloys	Operate to 350 °C; preferred for missile guidance, traveling-wave tubes, satellite actuators where NdFeB cannot survive [4]
Defence electronics	SmCo magnets in radar, EW, and precision-guided munitions	US DLA classifies SmCo as a critical defence material with no qualified substitute
Aerospace actuators	High-temperature servo motors, gimbal drives	Stable flux density and corrosion resistance vs. NdFeB
Optical filters	Sm-doped glass and CaF₂:Sm phosphors	UV-blocking optical components, IR luminescence
Catalysis	Sm(III) catalysts in organic synthesis	Niche pharmaceutical and fine-chemical use

Market & Supply

Global Sm₂O₃ production ~3,000 t/year (REO basis) [4]

China refined supply share ~85% [4]

Co-produced with Nd, Pr (bastnaesite/monazite)

SmCo magnet share of total Sm ~70% of demand

Export control MOFCOM/GAC No. 18/2025 [2]

Licence lead time ~4 months

Oxide bulk benchmark $3 to $5/kg (FOB China)

Metal retail (small qty) $3,800 to $10,000/kg

Verified Offers

All in-stock retail and bulk listings normalised to USD/kg. Sourced from primary surveys of eBay, Alibaba, and Western specialist retailers. The retail premium for hand-portioned metal samples is dramatic: the auto-rendered table below shows oxide bulk at single-digit dollars per kilogram while gram-scale metal trades above $9,000/kg.

		Purity		MOQ		Original	Source			Verification
2026-04-04	Metal	99.9% (3N)	0.001 kg	0.001 kg	$9,000	9,000 USD/kg	marketplace listing	snaucke-elements (eBay)	NL	single source offer	0.60
2026-04-04	Metal	99.95%	0.001 kg	0.001 kg	$10,000	10,000 USD/kg	marketplace listing	novaelements (eBay)	IT	single source offer	0.60
2026-04-04	Metal	99.5%	0.0075 kg	0.0075 kg	$3,867	3,867 USD/kg	marketplace listing	Luciteria	US	single source offer	0.55
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	1 kg	1 kg	$5	5 USD/kg	distributor offer	Stanford Advanced Materials	US	single source offer	0.60
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	1 kg	1 kg	$3	3 USD/kg	distributor offer	Edgetech Industries	CN	single source offer	0.60
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	1 kg	1 kg	$4	4 USD/kg	marketplace offer	ALB Materials	CN	single source offer	0.60

6 records · click a column to sort

Important Notes

Export controls in force Samarium is one of the seven medium and heavy rare earths controlled under MOFCOM/GAC Announcement No. 18/2025. SmCo magnet alloys and finished magnet rotors are explicitly named in the controlled item list [2].

SmCo > NdFeB at high temperature Samarium-cobalt magnets retain useful coercivity to 350 °C, well above NdFeB’s ~200 °C ceiling. This makes SmCo irreplaceable in missile guidance, satellite actuators, and high-temperature servo motors. There is no engineering substitute.

Co-production constraint Samarium is recovered as a by-product of Nd/Pr separation from bastnaesite. Supply cannot scale independently of light rare earth output, meaning Sm prices respond more to magnet-grade Nd demand than to Sm-specific demand.

Physical Properties [1]

Z: 62 · A_r: 150.36 u · ρ: 7.52 g/cm³ · T_m: 1,072 °C · T_b: 1,794 °C
Crystal: rhombohedral · Config: [Xe]4f⁶6s² · Ox. states: +2, +3

References

Wolfram Alpha, “Samarium element.” wolframalpha.com.
Ministry of Commerce / General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, Announcement No. 18 of 2025, “Export Control of Medium and Heavy Rare Earth Related Items,” 4 April 2025.
MOFCOM Announcements No. 70 and No. 72 of 2025 (suspension orders), 7 to 9 November 2025.
United States Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Rare Earths, January 2025.

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