The Importance Of The Tungsten Industry Is Becoming More And More Prominent

The content of tungsten in the earth's crust is about 0.001%, with natural reserves of about 6.2 million tons and mineable reserves of about 2.9 million tons. China is the world's largest reserve, mining and exporting countries of tungsten metal, tungsten resources reserves reached 5.2 million tons, accounting for more than 80% of the world's proven reserves. There are more than 20 kinds of tungsten-containing minerals discovered in the world, and there are mainly two kinds in China: wolframite (tungstate of manganese and iron) and scheelite (calcium tungstate). The tungsten resources reserves of Hunan, Jiangxi and Henan provinces rank the top three in China; among them, the tungsten resources reserves of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces account for 55.5% of the country, with wolfram in Hunan and wolfram in Jiangxi.

Tungsten is one of the non-ferrous metals with high melting point, usually higher than 1650 ℃, with high melting point, high specific gravity, high hardness of the physical properties of the molten alkali metals and vapors have good corrosion resistance. In view of this, tungsten has become an important strategic metal in China, and is an irreplaceable basic material and strategic resource for national economy and modern national defense. Tungsten is known as the "tooth of industry", and tungsten carbide manufactured with tungsten has ultra-high hardness and excellent abrasion resistance, and is widely used in the military industry, atomic energy, aerospace, shipbuilding, machining, automobile industry, electronics industry, chemical industry and other important fields.

China is the world's largest consumer of tungsten metal*, with consumption exceeding 80% of the world. In terms of the basic use of tungsten globally, about 50% is used in the smelting of high-quality steel, about 35% is used in the production of hard steel, about 10% is used in the production of tungsten wire, and about 5% is used for other purposes. The main products of tungsten and their uses are:

Tungsten Concentrate: Primary product of tungsten industry, generally produced by tungsten ore through corresponding mining and smelting process to produce wolfram concentrate or scheelite concentrate. It can be used to produce ferro-tungsten, sodium tungstate, ammonium paratungstate (APT), ammonium metatungstate (AMT) and other tungsten compounds, and the downstream products mainly include tungsten trioxide, blue tungsten oxide, tungsten powder, tungsten carbide, tungsten carbide, tungsten steel, tungsten bar, tungsten wire and so on.

Ammonium paratungstate: intermediate product of tungsten industry, which is produced from tungsten concentrate by pressure cooking, ion exchange, evaporation and crystallization, and is mainly used in the manufacture of tungsten oxide, ammonium metatungstate and other tungsten compounds, and can also be used in petrochemical industry as additives.

Tungsten oxide: intermediate product of tungsten industry, made by calcination of ammonium paratungstate, with various oxidized forms such as yellow tungsten oxide, blue tungsten oxide and purple tungsten oxide. Tungsten oxide is the main raw material for the production of tungsten powder, which is mainly used for the production of tungsten metal powder and tungsten carbide powder, and can also be used for the production of chemical products.

Tungsten powder: tungsten industry made products, made by reducing oxides with hydrogen, is the main raw material for processing tungsten products and tungsten alloys. Tungsten powder mixed with other metal powders can be made into a variety of tungsten alloys, such as tungsten-molybdenum alloy, tungsten-rhenium alloy, tungsten-copper alloy. Pure tungsten powder can be made into wires, rods, tubes, plates and other processed materials and products of certain shapes.

Tungsten carbide powder: tungsten industry products, metal tungsten powder and carbon black as raw materials, after carbon, carbonization, ball milling, sieving process. It has good electrical and thermal conductor properties, high melting and boiling point, very stable chemical properties, and is the main raw material for the production of cemented carbide.

In terms of demand, with the domestic epidemic under good control, the overall demand for tungsten industry has shown a significant rebound.2021 the first half of China's tungsten consumption totaled 31,100 tons, an increase of 16% year-on-year; of which 26,600 tons of raw tungsten consumption, an increase of 17% year-on-year. China's tungsten exports in the first half of the year was 11,000 tons, an increase of 23% year-on-year. In the future, with the rapid development of new energy and new materials industry, the demand for tungsten will gradually increase, the importance of tungsten resources will become increasingly prominent. In particular, the rapid growth of new energy vehicles, industrial robots, microcomputer equipment, integrated circuits and other high-tech industries will significantly drive tungsten demand.

On the supply side, tungsten resources as an important strategic resource, mining rationing system. 2021 China * batch of tungsten concentrate (65% WO3) mining total control indicators 63,000 tons, an increase of 10,500 tons over the same period in 2020, an increase of 20%; of which 46,890 tons of the main mining indicators, the comprehensive utilization of the indicators of 16,110 tons, compared to the same period of the previous year, both increased by 20%. 2021 China produced 66,666 tons of tungsten concentrate (65% WO3) in the first half of the year, an increase of 0.25% year-on-year, and has already used up the * batch of quotas.

In terms of price, the rebound in demand in 2021 caused the prices of tungsten concentrate, tungsten powder and tungsten alloy to rise to varying degrees. Driven by the global crude oil, non-ferrous and other bulk raw material prices climb, also indirectly makes tungsten from mining, smelting, processing and other aspects of the cost increase, pushed up tungsten prices. 2021 first half of the tungsten industry's main raw material tungsten concentrate (WO3 ≥ 65%) average price of 94,600 yuan / ton, compared with the same period last year rose 14.11%.

Some domestic enterprises have a large amount of tungsten ore resources as well as global* tungsten product production and processing technology. Xiamen Tungsten: focus on tungsten and molybdenum, rare earths and lithium-ion battery materials three core business, around the field of new materials to build the upstream and downstream industry chain, one of the six rare earth group, the world's * one of the largest tungsten smelting products processing enterprises and * one of the largest tungsten powder production base, the domestic * the largest ammonium paratungstate, tungsten oxide, tungsten powder, tungsten carbide powder manufacturers and exporters. Chinatungsten High-tech: tungsten cemented carbide, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, niobium and other non-ferrous metals and their deep processing, with the two largest tungsten carbide deep processing enterprises in China, the leading enterprise in the domestic tungsten industry, with a global output of cemented carbide and a global market share of microdrills*. Zhangyuan Tungsten: one of the few manufacturers in the domestic tungsten industry with a complete industrial chain*, the output of tungsten powder products is ranked the second in the domestic industry* and the output of tungsten carbide powder products is ranked the second in the domestic industry, and its subsidiary, Ganzhou Auqtay, has been selected as one of the third batch of specialized, special, and new "small giants" enterprises in the country. Xianglu Tungsten Industry: With a complete industrial chain in the tungsten industry, Xianglu Tungsten Industry has achieved a high technical level in particle size distribution, particle concentration, reduction of agglomeration and coarsening of tungsten carbide powder.