Cerium Price per kg (United States)

In the past year the monthly price has moved between $2.10 and $2.10.

Measured over the past year, cerium is +40.9%.

Cerium (Ce) is the most abundant rare earth, and much of it is used as cerium oxide polishing powder, which gives glass, screens, lenses and silicon wafers their flawless finish. It is also a workhorse of catalysis: in car catalytic converters it stores and releases oxygen, and in oil refining it helps crack heavy crude into petrol. Because it comes out of the ground with neodymium and praseodymium, cerium is often in surplus.

Other uses

• Glass decolourising and UV-blocking glass
• Lighter flints, through the alloy mischmetal
• Steel and aluminum alloy additive
• Self-cleaning oven linings

Cerium is the rare earth most often in surplus: it makes up a large part of every light rare earth ore, so producers separate more than the market needs while chasing the more valuable neodymium and praseodymium. Its price is therefore set less by its own demand than by how much magnet metal the industry is producing. Polishing powders and catalysts give it a steady floor.

What moves the price

• Rare earth mining quotas and output in China
• Magnet-driven separation volumes
• Glass polishing and catalyst demand
• Stockpiling and export policy

Cerium's price history is a lesson in rare earth bubbles. In 2011, when China slashed its export quotas, cerium oxide prices rocketed, then collapsed once supply returned and users cut back. Since then cerium has mostly been in surplus, a by-product of the hunt for magnet rare earths.

As of October 2026, the Stockatomics benchmark price is $2.10 per kg contained.

China mines and separates most of the world's cerium, alongside other light rare earths. The United States, Australia and Myanmar mine rare earth concentrate, with separation outside China growing but still small.

Cerium is on the US critical minerals list, and the light rare earths, cerium among them, are on the EU critical raw materials list. Separation, rather than mining, is the bottleneck, and it is concentrated in China.

Stockatomics publishes a US benchmark price for cerium in US dollars per kg contained, reading as of October 2026. The price is quoted per kg of oxide, the form in which separated rare earths are usually sold, not for a mixed rare earth concentrate. US trade in cerium is thin, so its price moves less often than those of the higher-volume minerals.

Converting the price

• Cerium oxide contains about 81% cerium, so a kilogram of oxide carries about 0.81 kg of cerium