U.S. Ban on Tungsten Scrap Exports Takes Effect for One Year
nashnova research
The Trump administration banned exports of tungsten scrap and spent lithium-ion battery shreds starting Thursday, aiming to keep a mineral almost entirely sourced from China inside U.S. borders — but whether the ban meaningfully eases supply pressure remains an open question.
What exactly does this ban cover?
Two categories are now barred from export: tungsten scrap and "black mass" — the crusite left after shredding spent lithium-ion batteries, which contains recoverable lithium, nickel, and cobalt.
In plain terms = this material used to be sold abroad for recycling; now the U.S. says "we keep it."
The ban runs one year under an executive order Trump signed earlier. Companies can apply for exemptions if they prove "irreparable harm."
How dependent is the U.S. on imported tungsten?
U.S. domestic tungsten mine output in 2025: zero. China produced 67,000 tonnes, roughly 79% of global supply.
2024 trade data show the U.S. imported about half of its tungsten consumption.
This means → the U.S. produces no tungsten and buys half of what it uses. Banning scrap exports plugs the drain — it does not turn on the tap.
What happened to tungsten prices after China tightened exports?
In February 2025 China imposed export controls on certain tungsten products. Since then, Rotterdam tungsten prices have surged nearly 800%.
This reflects just how concentrated global supply is: when a seller controlling nearly 80% of output restricts sales, prices spiral.
In plain terms = the dominant supplier pulled back, and the price jumped almost 9× — buyers had virtually no alternative.
Tungsten isn't just for ammunition — what's the chip connection?
Markets have mostly viewed tungsten through a defense lens: armor-piercing rounds, missile components, fragmentation material.
But Almonty Industries CEO Lewis Black flagged a less-noticed angle: tungsten is equally critical in semiconductors.
The key substance is tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆) — a tungsten-based gas used to deposit microscopic tungsten wiring inside advanced memory chips. It is embedded in the manufacturing chain for advanced logic chips, high-bandwidth memory, DRAM, and 3D NAND.
This means → if China keeps tightening tungsten exports, the bottleneck hits more than defense — AI data-center expansion could be constrained too.
Can this ban actually solve the problem?
The logic is "keep the scrap, recycle it domestically." But U.S. tungsten mine output is still zero, and no data quantify how much recycling can offset the shortfall.
Almonty controls the largest high-grade tungsten reserves outside China — one of the few non-Chinese suppliers that could benefit.
In plain terms = the ban seals the export end, but the import gap and the mining gap remain unsolved — real supply security is a much longer road.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。