US Defence Rules to Bar Chinese Tungsten From 2027 as Supply Outside China Tightens
A US defence directive will prohibit purchases of tungsten from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from 1 January 2027, while US scrap traders must allocate their volumes to domestic buyers by August 2027. USGS data show China mined about 67,000 of the roughly 85,000 tonnes produced worldwide in 2025. A supply gap of some 16,000 tonnes is projected outside China by 2030.
The United States is preparing to shut Chinese tungsten out of its defence supply chain from the start of 2027, a step expected to deepen the scarcity of the metal outside China. According to kapitalmarktexperten.de, a US defence directive will prohibit the purchase of tungsten from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from 1 January 2027.
A second measure covers recycled material. The Bureau of Industry and Security has determined that US traders of tungsten scrap must allocate their volumes in full to domestic buyers by August 2027, closing a channel that has fed processors abroad.
Rules meet thin domestic capacity
The restrictions land on Western industrial economies that hold almost no extraction capacity of their own for a metal described as strategically indispensable. That leaves defence contractors and technology groups under pressure to act rather than wait, and the practical response is to sign long-term supply agreements with partners they consider reliable.
The same report notes that reliability now outranks price in purchasing decisions for Western processors, a reversal of the logic that governed sourcing while Chinese material was freely available.
China accounts for about four-fifths of mine output
Figures compiled by the US Geological Survey show that of roughly 85,000 tonnes of tungsten mined worldwide in 2025, about 67,000 tonnes came from China. Beijing has also moved to issue export licences only restrictively, and only to selected companies, which drains the freely tradable pool of material available to buyers outside the country.
- Global mine production in 2025: about 85,000 tonnes
- Chinese output in 2025: about 67,000 tonnes
- Projected supply gap outside China by 2030: about 16,000 tonnes
- US defence purchase ban effective: 1 January 2027
- Deadline for domestic allocation of US tungsten scrap: August 2027
A deficit that cannot be closed quickly
The squeeze extends to processed intermediate products. A research house cited by kapitalmarktexperten.de projects a calculated supply gap of about 16,000 tonnes in markets outside China by 2030.
That deficit is structural rather than cyclical. Building new mines requires multi-year lead times and lengthy permitting procedures, so existing operations and advanced projects hold a substantial timing advantage over newcomers. Capital alone cannot compress the schedule, which is why volumes already in production carry a premium in contract negotiations.
Almonty positions across three continents
Against that backdrop, Almonty relies on a production network spanning three continents, with its operating base complemented by activities in Spain and a joint venture in Rwanda. The company has secured significant portions of its output to Western partners through long-term supply agreements.
That approach cuts both ways. Contracted volumes give management predictable revenue to fund continuing operations, but they also reduce the quantities the company could sell at peak prices on open trading venues if tungsten values spike. Equity markets have registered the shift in the sector: the shares trade at 12.32 euros and have gained 55 percent since the start of the year, with investor attention focused on how consistently the company meets its production targets in the coming quarters.