#70 Yb

Ytterbium Price

Heavy Rare Earth Suspended

Used in fiber lasers, metallurgy, and atomic clocks.

Main trade forms: Oxide (Yb₂O₃)
Available from: CN

Last update: 2026-04-04
4 records

Retail Reference

$32/kg

Oxide 99.9% (3N) · 1 kg

Edgetech Industries · CN · 2026-03-15

Bulk Benchmark

No commodity benchmark available

Suspended Export controls paused under November 2025 suspension orders. Regulatory Tracker →

Ytterbium was added to China’s expanded export-control scope under the October 2025 escalation announcements (MOFCOM Nos. 55–58, 61, 62) [2]. Those measures — including the Yb licensing requirement — were suspended on 7–9 November 2025 by Announcements Nos. 70 and 72 of 2025 [3].

The suspension runs until 28 November 2026. If not renewed, ytterbium controls revert to the pre-October 2025 baseline (no MOFCOM licence required). Trade pricing currently reflects the relaxed regime, but the underlying legal infrastructure remains in place.

Applications

Application	Role	Significance
Yb-doped fibre lasers	Yb³⁺ dopant in silica fibre	Dominant industrial cutting/welding laser technology — multi-kilowatt fibre lasers (IPG, Coherent) use Yb³⁺ as the gain medium
Atomic clocks	Yb optical lattice clocks	Among the most accurate timekeepers ever built; candidate for redefinition of the SI second
Solid-state lasers	Yb:YAG, Yb:KGW, Yb:CALGO crystals	Femtosecond ultrafast lasers for micromachining, eye surgery, scientific research
Stainless steel additive	Trace Yb addition to stainless steels	Grain refinement and improved mechanical properties (small-volume application)
Stress gauges	Yb metal pressure sensors	Yb’s electrical resistance changes monotonically with pressure to ~50 kbar

Market & Supply

Global Yb₂O₃ production ~50 t/year (separated oxide)

China refined supply share ~99%

Co-produced with Lu, Tm, Er (HREE concentrate)

Largest end-use Fibre-laser dopant

Current export control Suspended until Nov 2026 [3]

Oxide retail (1 kg) $32–$42/kg

Bulk metal (Alibaba, 1 kg) ~$185/kg

Snap-back risk 28 November 2026

Verified Offers

Ytterbium currently has the lowest separation cost among the heavy lanthanides, reflecting its relatively higher natural abundance and the lack of an active export-control regime. The auto-rendered table shows in-stock retail oxide and bulk metal listings.

Date	Form	Purity	USD/kg	Seller	Country
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	$42	Stanford Advanced Materials	US
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	$32	Edgetech Industries	CN
2026-03-15	Oxide	99.9% (3N)	$36	ALB Materials	CN
2026-04-04	Metal	99.9-99.99%	$185	Changsha Xinkang (Alibaba)	CN

Important Notes

Snap-back risk on 28 November 2026 Ytterbium controls were imposed in October 2025 then suspended in November 2025 until 28 November 2026. If China does not renew the suspension, the licensing regime resumes automatically — pricing currently does not reflect this latent risk.

Industrial fibre-laser dependency Yb³⁺ is the gain medium for nearly all multi-kilowatt industrial fibre lasers used in metal cutting, welding, and additive manufacturing. There is no qualified substitute — Nd³⁺ fibre lasers exist but operate at lower power and efficiency. A snap-back would directly affect IPG, Coherent, nLight, and Trumpf supply chains.

Co-production with lutetium Ytterbium is recovered alongside Lu and Tm in heavy rare earth separation. Yb supply tracks total HREE separation throughput, which is constrained by China’s six-year frozen mining quota of 19,150 t/year for heavy rare earths.

Physical Properties [1]

Z: 70 · A_r: 173.05 u · ρ: 6.90 g/cm³ · T_m: 824 °C · T_b: 1,196 °C
Crystal: fcc · Config: [Xe]4f¹⁴6s² · Ox. states: +2, +3

References

Wolfram Alpha, “Ytterbium element.” wolframalpha.com.
MOFCOM Announcements No. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, and 62 of 2025 (October 2025 escalation), effective 9 October 2025.
MOFCOM Announcements No. 70 and No. 72 of 2025 (suspension orders), 7–9 November 2025; suspension runs to 28 November 2026.