Tungsten – Uses, Prices, and Production

This blog highlights information and data I have found on the Internet related to tungsten uses, prices, and production.   Key Blog objectives are to present a tungsten 2018 global production amount and the amount of global revenues represented by the sale of this production.

Uses.  Tungsten’s high melting point (the highest of any metal) and its anti-corrosive, unreactive nature accounts for most of its uses.  These uses include:  in electrodes at high temperatures; as filaments to generate light by electric current passing through the filaments; combined with metals to form highly resistant, strong alloys; and in electrical equipment to meet heat-resistant, conducting needs.   The largest use of tungsten is in its combination with carbon to form tungsten carbide, an extremely strong compound, which is used in cutting tools and drills in many industries.

Prices.  Tungsten does not appear as an element in nature but combined with other elements.  The minerals scheelite and wolframite account for most of the source of tungsten.   These minerals are mined and chemically processed to form ammonium paratungstate (APT), which is sold by the processors to customers who further process (by reacting with hydrogen) the ATP to obtain the tungsten element.   The average 2018 global price of high-grade ATP was about $33,000 per metric ton (mt).

Production.  Estimates are that approximately 81,000 mt of ATP was produced globally in 2018.  With the ATP average price of $33,000 per mt, this gives a 2018 global tungsten revenue of $2.7 billion (81,000 mt times $33,000 per mt).