Entering 2026, the global tungsten market ushered in an unprecedented price frenzy, becoming the most attention-grabbing focus in the metal market.

Tungsten price increase situation

Compared with the beginning of 2025, the price of tungsten powder rose by more than 640%, realizing a multi-fold increase in just over a year. Only since 2026, the overall tungsten price increase is as high as 110% of the posture.

Lily, the sales manager of COMBAT, who has been deeply engaged in the field of commodities for a long time, has a deep understanding of this, and she said, “In my 12 years of experience in the tungsten industry, I've never seen such a tense tungsten market as now.”

Tungsten demand in full swing

Global demand pattern reversal

For a long time, China, as the world's largest tungsten producer and exporter, has dominated the supply pattern of the global tungsten market. However, entering 2026, this pattern has undergone a fundamental reversal - China has shifted from a net tungsten exporter to a net importer, becoming an important engine of global tungsten demand growth.

Data show that in January-February 2026, China's tungsten concentrate imports totaled about 5,195.7 tons, a year-on-year surge of 153.7%, a sharp increase in imports, a direct reflection of the strong demand in the domestic market, but also further exacerbated the supply of tungsten resources around the world tensions.

Strategic Defense Demand

With its high hardness and high melting point, tungsten has an irreplaceable role in the field of national defense. Whether it is aviation equipment such as helicopters and fighter jets, or ground weapons such as armor-piercing bullets and bullet-proof vehicles, tungsten materials are indispensable.

Emerging field demand

In addition to the traditional defense and industrial fields, the rapid development of semiconductors, artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles and other emerging high-tech fields has brought new growth poles for tungsten demand, and has become an important driver of the surge in tungsten prices in 2026.

Semiconductor and AI

Tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆) is one of the core materials in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, which is mainly used for the thin film deposition of chip contact and interconnect layers, and is an irreplaceable key raw material in 3D NAND manufacturing.

New Energy Vehicles

Tungsten is used in the manufacturing of batteries for new energy vehicles, which can effectively improve the energy density and cycle life of batteries, and also has important applications in components such as drive motors and battery diaphragms.

In energy storage systems, tungsten rods are also used in battery anode materials and electrolytes. With the rapid development of the global energy storage industry, the demand for tungsten will further increase.

Tungsten supply continues to tighten

In sharp contrast to the demand explosion, global tungsten supply continues to tighten in 2026.

Highly concentrated global supply

The distribution of global tungsten resources is extremely concentrated, China is the world's largest tungsten resource reserves and producers, the total global tungsten ore reserves of about 4.7 million tons in 2025, China's reserves of 2.5 million tons of tungsten ore ranked first in the world, accounting for 53.19% of the world's total reserves; production, the global tungsten production of 85,000 tons in 2025, China's tungsten production of 67,000 tons, accounting for 78.82% of the global production, continuing to maintain absolute tungsten supply 78.82%, continuing to maintain absolute dominance.

Export control upgrade

On February 4, 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs issued a notice (No. 10 of 2025) to implement export control on tungsten-related items, and the implementation of the export control policy has further tightened the supply of global tungsten resources.

Speculative hoarding

In the face of the continuous tightening of tungsten supply and rising prices, tungsten buyers around the world have started the “hoarding mode”, trying to cope with future supply shortages and price rises by stockpiling tungsten materials, and this speculative hoarding behavior further aggravates the contradiction between supply and demand in the market, pushing tungsten prices to continue to soar.

Supply chain instability

The continuous escalation of global geopolitical tensions has further aggravated the instability of tungsten supply chain. In order to safeguard their own strategic resources, countries have sought to establish independent tungsten supply chains, resulting in the disruption of global tungsten trade flows and a significant increase in supply chain uncertainty.

Tungsten industry chain conduction

The surge of tungsten price in 2026 not only affected the price of tungsten products, but also had a far-reaching impact on the whole tungsten industry chain, with upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises showing “polarization”, and the profit pattern of the industry was completely reshaped.

Upstream: mining enterprises

Against the background of soaring tungsten prices, upstream tungsten mining enterprises have become the biggest beneficiaries. Due to the scarcity of tungsten resources and supply rigidity, the rise in tungsten prices directly translates into profit growth for mining enterprises, and the performance of enterprises with tungsten resources has realized explosive growth.

Midstream: smelting and powder enterprises

Midstream tungsten smelting and powder processing enterprises are in the “sandwich layer”, facing the cost pressure brought by soaring upstream tungsten concentrate prices on the one hand, and the limited acceptance of price increases by downstream enterprises on the other, resulting in the profit space of midstream enterprises being squeezed significantly, and pressurized to move forward.

Downstream: cutting tools and precision manufacturing

Downstream cutting tools and precision manufacturing enterprises are the biggest pressure party of tungsten price surge.

Cutting tool companies, for example, tungsten carbide powder is the core raw material, the price of which rose from 311 yuan / kg to 1,750 yuan / kg, an increase of 463%, directly leading to the production cost of cutting tools soared to 4.6 times a year ago.

What affects tungsten products the most?

Against the backdrop of soaring tungsten prices, there are differences in the market performance of different tungsten products, which have become the core concern of the tungsten market in 2026:

1. Tungsten carbide: strong price increase, rigid demand as the core raw material for cutting tools and mold manufacturing, becoming the main source of cost pressure for midstream enterprises.
2. Tungsten powder: supply is extremely tight, due to the lack of upstream tungsten concentrate supply, the midstream smelting enterprises' tungsten powder production is limited, the market presents a “supply exceeds demand” situation, and the price continues to soar. 
3. Tungsten rods: the demand for tungsten rods in the aerospace field is increasing, and the price remains high.
4. Tungsten crucible: benefiting from the development of semiconductor industry, tungsten crucible is used as a key consumable in semiconductor manufacturing, and the demand continues to increase.
5. Tungsten-copper alloy: demand for new energy vehicles and electric discharge machining (EDM) exploded, with significant price increases.

Future Outlook: What will happen to tungsten prices in 2026 and beyond?

In the face of the current surge in tungsten prices, the most concerned questions in the market are: will tungsten prices continue to rise? How about the future trend? From a comprehensive point of view, in 2026 and beyond, tungsten prices will show a “high level of operation, stable and rising” trend. .

Impact on tungsten procurement

Currently, tungsten material procurement is facing two core pain points: first, unstable supply. Due to tungsten resource shortage and supply chain disruption, many buyers are unable to purchase enough tungsten materials in time, which affects the production plan. Secondly, high price fluctuation. The skyrocketing rise and frequent fluctuation of tungsten price make it difficult to control the procurement cost and increase the business risk of enterprises.

Choose COMBAT: Your Reliable Tungsten Material Partner

COMBAT, as a joint-stock enterprise with a registered capital of RMB 100 million and 17 years of tungsten material export experience, is a globally renowned producer and exporter of tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, tantalum, niobium and other non-ferrous materials and alloy products, which is able to provide a stable and high-quality supply of tungsten materials for global purchasers, and is an ideal partner to cope with the current market fluctuations.

Ensuring stable tungsten supply

COMBAT has a perfect production system and abundant resources reserves, and can independently produce various tungsten products such as tungsten rods, tungsten crucibles, tungsten carbide parts, tungsten-copper alloys, etc. COMBAT has set up a stable supply chain system, which is able to effectively deal with the shortage of tungsten resources, unstable supply chain and other problems, to ensure the timely supply of the products, and to help customers to avoid the risk of supply.

High quality products and services

COMBAT focuses on product quality control, and COMBAT's products are exported to Korea, Japan, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and many other countries and regions, winning high recognition and praise from global customers.

Rich export experience

As an enterprise with 17 years of export experience, COMBAT is familiar with the global tungsten material trade rules and import and export policies of various countries, and is able to provide professional trade services to help customers avoid trade risks.

FAQ about tungsten price in 2026

Q1: Why will tungsten price rise so fast in 2026?

A1: The surge of tungsten price in 2026 is the result of multiple factors, such as supply and demand imbalance, market speculation and geopolitics.

Q2: What are the current core application of tungsten?

A2: Tungsten has a high melting point, high hardness, corrosion resistance, and a wide range of application areas. The current core application fields include:

1. Traditional industrial fields, such as cutting tools manufacturing;
2. National defense fields, armor-piercing bullets, bullet-proof cars, etc.; 3. High-tech fields, such as semiconductors, new energy automobile batteries.

Q3: What tungsten products does COMBAT mainly provide?

A3: COMBAT focuses on the production and export of tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, tantalum, niobium and other non-ferrous metal materials and alloy products. Core tungsten products include: tungsten rods, tungsten crucibles, tungsten carbide parts, tungsten-copper alloys, and we provide customized tungsten parts service.

Q4: Will tungsten prices continue to rise in 2026 and beyond?

A4：Industry analysts generally believe that in 2026 and beyond, tungsten price will continue to maintain a high level of operation, and the overall trend of “stable but rising”.

Conclusion

The surge of tungsten price in 2026 is not a short-term market fluctuation, but an inevitable result of the restructuring of the supply and demand pattern of the global tungsten industry. COMBAT has become a reliable partner for global buyers to cope with market fluctuations and ensure stable supply.