Tungsten Market Looks to Rebalance in 2017

       

Chinese consumption has continued to grow in the face of contracting markets in the rest of the world. The country's tungsten use increased by nearly 8%py between 2008 and 2016, but it was the only main consuming country to record growth, with the exception of Russia. As a result, world consumption grew by around 3%py over the period, reaching just over 100,000t contained W in 2016.

Chinese tungsten supply has also grown in line with its consumption. The country is the main producer of primary tungsten, accounting for just under 80% of output in 2016, and also contributes a few thousand tonnes per year to secondary tungsten supply. Very little mine output is exported (<1,000tpy contained W) and domestic mine supply is supplemented with imports, generally in a range of 2,000-5,000tpy of contained W.

Instead, China has focused on increasing its exports of value-added tungsten products. The proportion of exports accounted for by the main intermediate, ammonium paratungstate (APT), has decreased since 2008 along with exports of tungsten products such as oxide and metal. Meanwhile, production and export of goods such as mixed metal carbides and cemented carbides has increased as the country has repositioned itself as a supplier of higher value tungsten products to the world market.