On July 22, the quoted price for black tungsten concentrate (≥65%) climbed to 184,000 yuan per ton, while the quoted price for white tungsten concentrate (≥65%) reached 183,000 yuan per ton. The quoted price for tungsten powder was 400 yuan per kilogram, and the quoted price for APT (ammonium paratungstate) stood at 268,000 yuan per ton. Prices for all these products have risen by more than 25% compared to the beginning of the year, setting new historical records across the board.

“This price has far exceeded the peak level reached in 2011,” Mr. Li, a tungsten ore trader from Jiangxi, told a reporter from the Shanghai Securities Journal. During the 2011 rally, the highest domestic quoted price for black tungsten concentrate (≥65%) was around 158,000 yuan per ton, while the price of APT stood at 240,000 yuan per ton.

During an interview with industry chain sources, reporters learned that the current rise in tungsten prices is driven by a combination of factors on both the supply and demand sides. Industry insiders predict that, influenced by tighter tungsten mine extraction quotas, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and the natural decline in ore grade at operating mines, this year’s supply-demand gap will exceed 4,600 tons, providing strong support for tungsten prices. Leading companies are纷纷 adjusting their pricing.

On July 21, Zhangyuan Tungsten Industry released its price quotes: for the second half of July, the company’s long-term contract prices are RMB 180,000 per ton for 55% black tungsten concentrate, RMB 179,000 per ton for 55% white tungsten concentrate, and RMB 265,000 per ton for APT—each representing an increase from the quotes for the first half of the month.

Xiamen Tungsten also raised prices for its related products. Specifically, the purchase price for APT long-term contracts in the second half of July was 263,000 yuan per ton, an increase of 12,000 yuan per ton compared to the first half of the month—a rise of approximately 5%. The quoted price for 50% black tungsten concentrate long-term contracts was 179,000 yuan per ton, up 9,500 yuan per metric ton from the first half of the month, representing a 5.6% increase.

The price increase is being passed on downstream. Wang, the manager of a cemented carbide manufacturer in Guangdong, said: “This year, the pressure from rising raw material costs has been too great, and we’ve already been forced to adjust our product prices.”

Supply and demand drive market trends.

“Multiple factors on both the supply and demand sides are jointly driving this round of market rally,” a head of a tungsten mining company told reporters.

The supply side is showing signs of “tightening”: First, policy tightening—the first batch of tungsten mining quotas for 2025 have been reduced to 58,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6.45%. Among them, major producing regions such as Jiangxi and Yunnan saw year-on-year reductions of 2,370 tons and 400 tons, respectively. Second, resource constraints—high-grade, easily-mined resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and the grade of raw ore continues to decline. Third, rising costs—lower ore grades have driven up mining costs, prompting several small domestic mines to suspend operations due to cost-effectiveness issues.

The demand side exhibits the characteristics of “stable traditional sectors and thriving emerging sectors.”

On the one hand, demand is rebounding in traditional sectors such as machine tools and automobiles. According to data from the China Machine Tool Industry Association, from January to May this year, sales of metal-cutting machine tools increased by 14.5% year-on-year, driving steady growth in end-demand for cemented carbides. On the other hand, emerging applications such as photovoltaic silicon wafer cutting and semiconductor packaging are experiencing rapid growth. According to statistics from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, in 2025, the penetration rate of tungsten wire busbars in photovoltaic wafer slicing had already reached 35%, an increase of 12 percentage points compared to 2024. Leading companies such as Longi Green Energy and Tongwei Co., Ltd. are accelerating technological upgrades.

According to a research report by China Post Securities, factors such as tighter mining quotas for tungsten, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and the natural decline in ore grades at operating mines—coupled with rising demand driven by the growth of high-tech manufacturing—will boost the prosperity of the tungsten industry. It is projected that by 2025, the supply-demand gap in the tungsten industry will reach 4,679 tons, providing strong support for tungsten prices.

Mining companies are stepping up their investment efforts.

Faced with continuously rising prices, all links in the tungsten industry chain have begun making adjustments to respond, and upstream enterprises have significantly increased their investment efforts.

Upstream companies are accelerating their resource deployment. “Currently, we’re working to integrate the mining rights for the Taoxikeng tungsten mine and the Xin’anzizi tungsten-tin mine with the adjacent exploration rights, thereby expanding the area covered by our mining rights,” said a relevant official from Zhangyuan Tungsten Industry to reporters. Zhangyuan Tungsten Industry holds mining rights for six mines, including the Taoxikeng tungsten mine, the Xin’anzizi tungsten-tin mine, the Dayu Shilei tungsten mine, the Tianjingwo tungsten mine, the Changliukeng copper mine, and the Huangzhulong tungsten mine, as well as exploration rights for 10 areas, namely Dongfeng, Bikeng, Xikengkou, Nikeng, and Longtanmian.

Through the acquisition of Shizhuyuan Company and plans to inject its remaining mines over the next five years, Zhongtung High-Tech aims to boost its self-sufficiency rate in tungsten concentrate. “After the injection of Shizhuyuan Company, the company’s tungsten mine self-sufficiency rate within the equity-controlled scope will reach approximately 20%, while the self-sufficiency rate within the management-controlled scope will rise to about 60% to 70%,” Zhongtung High-Tech recently stated. The company is actively planning and advancing the acquisition of the remaining four mining assets, with the goal of minimizing intra-industry competition and significantly enhancing the profitability of the listed company.

Xiamen Tungsten previously stated that, in terms of ensuring tungsten resources, the company’s current resource security rate is 20%, and it plans to increase this rate to 70% in the future.

Xianglu Tungsten Industry stated that, from the supply side, most projects in China are expected to come on stream in about three years, while progress on new tungsten concentrate projects worldwide has been slow. As a result, the increase in raw material supply in 2025 will be limited, and the supply-demand balance in the tungsten market will remain tight. Consequently, the market is expected to continue operating at relatively high levels.

Downstream companies are actively promoting product upgrades. “We’re developing high-performance alloys that use less material,” said the aforementioned cemented carbide manufacturer. By refining our processes and reducing the amount of tungsten used per unit of product, we’re able to offset rising raw material costs.