In 2010 and 2011, the overall tungsten production followed an upward trend, increasing by around 10,000 tonnes annually. However, in 2012, it registered a 1.2% YoY decrease and totaled just over 83,000 tonnes. China is ranked the 1st major tungsten producer worldwide, accounting for around 75% of the total production. In 2012, the combined tungsten production in the top five producing countries (namely China, the US, Russia, Canada and Austria) stood at about 78,000 tonnes in volume, which represented around 94% of the world’s total production.
World tungsten production broken down by country, 2012
During the past several years, the world tungsten supply has been struggling to match demand growth, with tungsten output supplemented with the sales of the material from stockpiles, especially from those owned by governmental organizations.
The world tungsten market’s dependence on the Chinese tungsten has continued in spite of a general strengthening in prices worldwide since 2008. China’s government has introduced certain measures in order to consolidate and control its local tungsten industry and also to limit production and exports of most types of tungsten. China is also the largest consumer of tungsten, accounting for over 50% of the total consumption.
Historically, the world demand for tungsten has been closely tied to the overall economic activity, particularly because the product is mostly used in mature industrial applications rather than in some novel and evolving technologies. In the recent years, the growth in the global tungsten consumption has outperformed the growth of the world’s GDP, considerably due to the robust increase of China’s influence.
Dentonia Resources, Geodex Minerals, Brazil Tungsten Holdings Limited, A&IR Mining JSC, Wolfram Company CJSC, Jiangxi Rare Metals Tungsten Holdings Group, Hunan Nonferrous Metals Corp and Shanghai Metal Corporation are amid the strong competitors in the world tungsten market.
China is predicted to continue dominating the world tungsten market in terms of both production and exports. Significant supply surpluses are expected not only in China, but also in some other countries. The global tungsten production is forecast to post 3.8% YoY growth on average in the years ahead and reach 100,100 tonnes in 2017.
More information on the tungsten market can be found in the in-demand research study “Tungsten: 2014 Market Review and Forecast”.