The Birth of a "Top Stream" Strategic Metal: The Industrial Logic Behind the Skyrocketing Tungsten Price
On April 3rd, the average price of black tungsten concentrate stood at 958,000 yuan per ton, a surge of nearly 600% compared with the beginning of April 2025 - this stunning increase, far exceeding the approximately 38% rise in gold prices during the same period, has become the most notable phenomenon in the rare metal market. Tungsten, once long confined to the corner of industrial raw materials, is riding the wave of the new energy, artificial intelligence, and aerospace industries with its extremely high hardness and wear resistance, leaping to become a new "top stream" and firmly seizing the "C position" in the ranking of rare metals.
The value of rare metals is always deeply bound to the strategic industrial needs of the times, evolving dynamically with the adjustment of the global industrial pattern and economic and trade trends.
More than a decade ago, when people talked about strategic industries, their attention was often focused on fields such as steel, petrochemicals, and equipment manufacturing. At that time, as the "world factory", China's huge consumption of processing and manufacturing made bulk minerals such as iron, copper, and aluminum the undisputed protagonists.
When the "new three treasures" became the new business card of Made in China, the logic of strategic industries quietly changed: with the rise of the new energy industry, lithium transformed from a "modifier" for ceramics and glass into a core raw material for power batteries, earning the reputation of "white petroleum"; driven by both wind power and electric vehicles, rare earth permanent magnet materials became highly sought-after... As the industrial trend changes, the elements pushed to the center of the market stage also change accordingly.
Today, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is sweeping the world. Emerging and future industries such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and commercial aerospace are accelerating their development, bringing new development opportunities for a variety of key elements.
Take tungsten as an example -
In the field of high-end manufacturing, it is an important material for machine tools, cutting tools, and precision molds, directly determining the accuracy and service life of industrial mother machines; in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, it is an indispensable material for advanced process chips; in the field of controlled nuclear fusion "artificial sun", tungsten has successfully opened up a brand-new incremental market by virtue of its stability in extreme environments...
It can be said that with each iteration of the industry, the importance of elements is often rewritten. What was just an ordinary raw material yesterday may become a strategic resource today; once glamorous traditional minerals may gradually step back to the second line with technological transformation.
Industrial development constantly reshapes the value of resources, and resource endowment also determines the growth height and pressure resistance of the industry.
From new energy and new materials to high-end equipment, every industrial breakthrough is inseparable from the support of key minerals and rare metals -
Some battery companies are no longer confined to negotiating orders in offices, but take the initiative to move into upstream mines; some vehicle manufacturers directly sign long-term supply agreements with mining companies; even some countries have begun to strategically reserve key minerals as "new oil"... In the final analysis, all these are to firmly grasp key resources in their own hands.
A stable ability to obtain resources is the basic foundation for industrial chain security, and an advanced level of resource processing is also the key to enhancing competitiveness.
Without independent and leading processing and purification capabilities, it is difficult to convert raw material advantages into industrial advantages; without an efficient closed-loop recycling system, it is difficult for the industrial chain to achieve long-term sustainable development. Today, resource control, processing level, and recycling capacity together constitute the underlying support for industrial competition.
For a major country, it is necessary not only to stabilize the bulk minerals needed for the upgrading of traditional industries, but also to build a safe and controllable supply chain of key minerals for new industries. It is not enough to just have resources; more importantly, to convert resource advantages into technological advantages, cost advantages, and sustainable development advantages. Only in this way can the industrial system be more risk-resistant and resilient.
It is still unknown which metal will take the "C position" in the future, but it is certain that: firmly adhering to the principle of taking resources as the foundation, technology as the core, and the industrial chain as the shield, industrial development can proceed steadily and far.
