Tungsten · W
specialty_metal · primary
Bottom line
Tungsten sits on 2 federal critical-minerals lists; mine supply is highly concentrated (HHI 0.66, 2025), led by 🇨🇳 China at 81% of output. US net import reliance: >50 (2025). Prices rose 51% over the past year (+14%/yr over 4y).
At a glance
Headline indicators
Price · 2025
380dollars per dry metric ton unit
USGS MCS (Rotterdam)
Price trend
+51% 1Y
+14%/yr · 4Y CAGR
US net import reliance · 2025
>50
Mine production HHI
0.66
Highly concentrated · 2025
From ore to use
lifecycle flow
- 01Reserves
4.7Mt
China leads · 53% share
- 02Production
75.8Kt
China top · 2024
- 03Trade
7.0Kt
net importer · 2025
- 04Stocks
0t
year-end · 2025
- 05Consumption
-
Coverage
Data coverage notes
- no forecastTungsten: no free authoritative demand forecast - No free numeric tungsten demand forecast exists: ITIA's annual statistical review costs US$2,000 for non-members and is historical statistics, not a forecast; USGS MCS 2026 tungsten has no outlook sentence; the IEA clean-tech slice (~0.1% of the ~110 kt/yr carbide-tools-dominated market) would be materially misleading as a demand outlook.
- no dataNo commodity-decomposed recycling data - No USGS MCS Fig13 scrap rows. EU WEEE / battery EOL flows (Phase 6.1.1) are country-keyed only - see country profiles.
- datedMaterial-flow analysis is historical - All 257 material-flow records date to 2008 or earlier (Yale STAF era). They describe the anthropogenic cycle of that period, not today's system.
- datedEnvironmental footprint is dated - Cradle-to-gate intensity rows carry a 2008 inventory vintage (Nuss & Eckelman-era LCA). Current-process footprints are not yet in scope.
- datedExport-restriction inventory ends 2020 - The OECD industrial-raw-materials inventory (vendored snapshot) reports HS-line measures only through 2020; restrictions enacted since are not reflected in the measure table.
- narrowConsumption geography is single-economy (United States) - Reported consumption covers one economy only - the world usage split must be read from trade flows, not from a consumption table.
Methodology
How strata reads a commodity
The eight-stage lens, the observed-vs-estimated membrane, stage-honest supply, per-stage concentration, ownership resolution and the demand lens - the full method is illustrated live on copper, nickel and lithium.
Provenance
Where this data comes from
- BGS World Mineral Statistics
midstream_components_seed
ni43101_deposits
ownership_control_seed
- USGS DS-140 (constant 1998 USD)
- USGS DS-140 (nominal)
- USGS MCS (Rotterdam)
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries World Data (legacy wide format, 2023-2025 vintages)
- USGS Minerals Yearbook OFR 2025-1047
- USGS Minerals Yearbook Vol III, reference year 2019
usgs_critmin_deposits_v2
usgs_mine_waste
usgs_mrds_2016
usmin_critical_deposits
16 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher