tungsten
Critical · 2 lists

Tungsten · W

specialty_metal · primary

USGS_2022
USGS_2025

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).

Headline indicators

380dollars per dry metric ton unit

USGS MCS (Rotterdam)

+51% 1Y

+14%/yr · 4Y CAGR

>50

0.66

Highly concentrated · 2025

lifecycle flow

  1. 01Reserves

    4.7Mt

    China leads · 53% share

  2. 02Production

    75.8Kt

    China top · 2024

  3. 03Trade

    7.0Kt

    net importer · 2025

  4. 04Stocks

    0t

    year-end · 2025

  5. 05Consumption

    -

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.

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.

Read the methodology, illustrated live →

Where this data comes from

16 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher