The U.S. tungsten market continues to firm at the hands of Chinese suppliers, with domestic ammonium paratungstate (APT) rising as much at 10 percent in the past month alone.
Prices for APT in the North American market have climbed to between $235 and $240 per short ton unit (stu), traders told AMM, up from the $215- to $220-per-stu range reported at the start of September and well above the $170- to $190-per-stu spread seen at the onset of the year.
“Tungsten never took the big run up like the other specialty metals, so kind of its time has come,” one trader said.
The price rise is mostly a supply-side issue, as a series of heavy rainfalls in major tungsten-producing areas of China, a shortage of concentrate and…
