"Scrap tungsten carbide blades are now selling for 1.2 yuan per gram, and a single CN12 blade can fetch 10 yuan." A few days ago, a user in the recycling group mentioned this. When this message exploded in the group, many industry professionals initially thought it was a joke, but as more and more recyclers confirmed it, everyone realized that scrap tungsten carbide blades, once considered "industrial scrap," had truly become a hot commodity.
In the user group, there are numerous daily discussions about knives, materials, and processing techniques. But recently, "scrap tungsten carbide blade recycling prices" have become the hottest topic.
"Scrap tungsten carbide blades are now selling for 1.2 yuan per gram, and a single CN12 blade can fetch 10 yuan." "
It's important to understand that in the past, waste tungsten cutting tools were often randomly dumped or even treated as garbage. Now, at a recycling price of 1.2 yuan/gram, a standard CN12 cutting tool weighing approximately 8-9 grams can easily fetch over 10 yuan in recycling value.
This is not an isolated case. According to statistics from China Tungsten Online, the recycling price of waste tungsten steel end mills has surged from 200 yuan/kg in March 2025 to over 1000 yuan/kg, an increase of nearly five times; the recycling price of ordinary waste cemented carbide cutting tools has reached 1.2 yuan/gram, and waste tungsten rods have even surpassed 1.1 million yuan/standard ton. Waste tungsten material has transformed from "industrial waste" into "industrial gold," becoming a new tool for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
· Tungsten powder: The price surged from 316 yuan/kg in the first quarter of 2025 to 1800 yuan/kg in February 2026, an increase of 470%, with a single-month increase of 41.7% in January 2026 alone." Ammonium paratungstate: Prices surged to 1.1 million yuan/ton, with some quotes even exceeding 1.2 million yuan/ton, representing an increase of over 400% compared to the beginning of last year. Market conditions: In February 2026, the domestic tungsten market experienced extreme price increases of 10,000 to 60,000 yuan per day, with a monthly increase of 30% and a cumulative increase of nearly 80% year-to-date.
▲Latest market data as of March 3, 2026 (Source: China Tungsten Online)
The soaring raw material prices directly forced downstream companies to collectively adjust prices.
Domestically, upstream mining and metallurgical companies such as Zhangyuan Tungsten, Xiamen Tungsten, and Xianglu Tungsten took the lead in raising their long-term contract prices for tungsten raw materials and cemented carbide products. Zhangyuan Tungsten's February price for black tungsten concentrate reached 730,000 yuan/ton, and it further adjusted its cemented carbide product prices in March. Midstream companies such as Xinrui Shares and China Tungsten High-Tech followed suit, raising prices across their entire cemented carbide product line. Downstream tool manufacturers are adjusting prices more frequently, with Huari Precision raising CNC tool prices four times since December 2025. OKEx and Tiangong International also issued price adjustment notices in February and March 2026, covering CNC inserts, high-alloy powder, and other products.
In the international market, South Korean SK Specialty and Foosung, two major tungsten hexafluoride manufacturers, will raise product prices by 70% to 90% starting in 2026, supplying semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Kennametal has raised prices for carbide tools in Europe; Mitsubishi Materials announced a 10% to 15% price increase for CNC tools in Asia starting April 1st, all pointing to the pressure of soaring tungsten raw material costs.
Why is tungsten price "skyrocketing" due to the triple resonance of supply and demand imbalances?
This surge in tungsten prices is not accidental.
1. Supply side: Global supply... "Bottleneck" – Domestic tungsten mining is subject to total volume control, with mining quotas reduced in 2025. Coupled with stricter environmental inspections and increased crackdowns on illegal mining, the grade of old ore is decreasing, and new mine capacity is limited in the short term, resulting in a persistently tight tungsten supply. Huaxi Securities points out that entering 2026, market expectations for post-holiday restocking demand continue to rise, with some holders taking advantage of the low prices to replenish their positions, leading to a marginal improvement in short-term trading volume.
As a core global supplier of tungsten resources, China accounts for over 60% of global reserves and over 80% of production. Export controls on tungsten-related items have further exacerbated expectations of global market tension, making it difficult for overseas tungsten resource projects to fill the supply gap in the short term.
2. Demand Side: Emerging Sectors "Ignite" Demand
Traditional Sectors: The recovery of industries such as construction machinery and metal cutting machine tools is driving steady growth in demand for CNC cutting tools.
Emerging Sectors: The penetration rate of tungsten wire diamond wire in photovoltaic silicon wafer cutting has exceeded 60%. Global new heterojunction installed capacity is expected to reach 80GW in 2026, directly driving an additional tungsten demand of approximately 6,400 tons. Demand for cemented carbide cutting tools is also rapidly increasing in high-end manufacturing sectors such as new energy vehicles and AI servers.
In the long term, this surge in tungsten prices has also become an opportunity for industry transformation and upgrading, accelerating the entire tungsten industry chain away from low-price competition and into a critical stage of ecological reconstruction and value upgrading.
Upstream companies are accelerating resource integration and efficiency improvement to solidify their resource advantages. Midstream and downstream companies are shifting their focus to technological research and development and product upgrades, using technology to reduce costs and alleviate cost pressures. The industry's competitive logic is rapidly shifting from the traditional "price war" to a more dynamic and competitive landscape. "Value Wars." While adjusting prices multiple times, Huari Precision has continuously deepened its technological R&D to improve production efficiency. OKE also stated that rising raw material prices are forcing downstream customers to pay more attention to the processing efficiency, lifespan, and stability of cutting tools, helping companies with technological and service advantages stand out. It can be said that the general rise in raw material prices has forced the industry to passively escape the involutionary low-price competition model, allowing companies to invest more energy in R&D upgrades, with product strength and service becoming the new core of competition.
For downstream application companies such as machining and mold manufacturing, it is now more important to focus on cost control and resource utilization: on the one hand, standardizing the classification and management of waste materials such as scrap tungsten carbide inserts and milling cutters, choosing compliant recycling channels, maximizing recycling revenue, and turning waste into a new growth point for cost reduction and efficiency improvement; on the other hand, strengthening cooperation with leading cutting tool companies, selecting high-performance, high-efficiency cutting tool products, and offsetting the pressure of rising costs by improving production efficiency.
