Tungsten is a strategically important but comparatively small-volume refractory-metal market whose commercial center of gravity is cemented carbides. USGS reports that about 60% of U.S. tungsten consumption goes into cemented carbide parts for cutting and wear-resistant uses in construction, metalworking, mining, and oil and gas drilling. Downstream trade forms are specialized: processors work from concentrate, APT, oxide, and scrap to make tungsten metal powder, tungsten carbide powder, and tungsten chemicals rather than shipping large tonnages of commodity-grade refined metal.

The supply picture is dominated by China. USGS estimates 2024 world mine production at 81,000 metric tons W content, of which China supplied about 67,000 metric tons, or almost 83%. The United States had no mine production and has not mined tungsten commercially since 2015, leaving U.S. net import reliance above 50% of apparent consumption. Non-Chinese output improved in 2024 thanks partly to new Australian operations, and a Korean project was nearing production, but these moves only marginally changed a market still anchored by Chinese production, consumption, and exports. Scrap remains an important secondary feed.

Reserves are not geologically scarce in an absolute sense: USGS reports world reserves of more than 4.6 million metric tons W content and notes that resources are widespread across every continent except Antarctica. The issue is commercial concentration and processing leverage, not elemental rarity. That is consistent with tungsten's policy status: it is on both the U.S. critical-minerals list and the EU's strategic and critical raw-materials lists, and late-2024 U.S. tariff action on Chinese tungsten products shows that trade policy is now part of the supply-chain landscape.