Terbium Oxide
Prices, Suppliers and Trading

Terbium Price Overview — 2026

What Is Terbium Used For?

Terbium is a heavy rare earth element with atomic number 65. It is produced in tiny quantities relative to other rare earths and commands a price roughly 14 times that of the neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) basket — making it one of the most valuable rare earth elements traded commercially.

The primary use of terbium is alongside dysprosium as an additive in NdFeB permanent magnets for applications requiring performance at extreme temperatures. While dysprosium is used in larger proportions, terbium provides superior coercivity improvement per kilogram added, making it the preferred additive in the most demanding high temperature applications — including advanced EV motors, aerospace actuators, and military hardware operating in extreme thermal environments.

Beyond magnets, terbium is used in green phosphors for LED lighting and flat panel displays (its intense green fluorescence is irreplaceable in tri-phosphor lamps and display backlights), in solid state devices and sensors, and in magneto-optical data storage materials. The compound terbium iron garnet is used in optical isolators for fibre optic communications.

Why Terbium Is So Scarce

Unlike the more abundant light rare earths such as cerium and lanthanum, terbium is a heavy rare earth element with an extremely low crustal abundance. Global annual production is estimated at just 700 to 800 tonnes per year, almost entirely from China. The combination of very low natural abundance, concentration of production in China, and the addition of export controls in April 2025 has created a severe and sustained supply shortage for buyers outside China.

The US, EU, Japan and South Korea are all actively investing in rare earth processing capacity to reduce dependence on Chinese terbium supply. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act designates terbium as a strategic material with binding domestic production targets. However, building alternative supply chains for heavy rare earths takes years — meaning the supply crunch will persist well into the 2030s.

Terbium Demand Outlook

Demand for terbium is projected to grow significantly as EV adoption accelerates globally. Each high performance EV motor requires 0.1 to 0.5 kg of terbium oxide in its magnets. With global EV sales approaching 50 million units per year by 2030, even a conservative estimate points to terbium demand growing 4 to 6 times from current levels by the end of the decade — while supply is constrained by geology, processing capacity, and geopolitical risk.