Abstract: Rare earths are important basic materials in aerospace, new energy, new materials and biomedicine, etc. After 2012, the global rare earth metals （HS280530） trade volume has increased significantly, the main structure of the trade network has undergone an obvious transformation, the trade network is unstable, and there is a certain supply risk in the global rare earth metals trade. In order to deeply study the evolution of the global rare earth metals trade network pattern, the supply crisis propagation path and the degree of impact, this study constructs a global rare earth metals trade network and cascade failure （avalanche） model from 2002 to 2022, deeply analyzes the transformation of the global rare earth metals trade pattern and the change of the trade flow, and simulates the avalanche scale, avalanche rounds and crisis propagation paths of different outbreak sources with parameters r₁=5, r₂=5, and r₃=7. It is found that: ① the scale, average degree and concentration of the global rare earth metals trade have increased from 2002 to 2022, the number of core countries has increased, and except for China’s rare earth metals export volume which has been steadily ranked in the top four, the other several names have changed frequently, and by 2022, the top four countries of the global rare earth metals export volume will mostly be Asian countries; ② the scope of the supply crisis is diminishing as the global trade network for rare earth metals becomes more stable, but indirect contagion from China still affects more countries than direct contagion; ③ the scale of trade between China and the United States is decreasing, but the spread of the supply crisis is becoming longer. The extent of supply crisis impacts in China has decreased, and there has been a small increase in the United States. China had the largest and longest spread of supply crises to Europe. Japan’s crisis in 2002 has a larger impact scale, the avalanche of supply crises decreases in size over time, and by 2022 its occurrence of a supply crisis will only affect the Philippines. The study is conducive to maintaining the stability of global trade in rare earth metals and taking preventive measures to mitigate supply crises.