China produced 82,180 tons of tungsten concentrate in the first three quarters of 2018. The excess supply of tungsten concentrate will be improved
Tungsten is widely used in metal processing, machinery, electronics, mining, heavy manufacturing, petrochemical and other fields. As a strategic metal in China, tungsten is listed as a specific mineral for protective mining in China.
With the development of science and technology, technological progress and the development of new products, tungsten products will play a more important role. The potential industrial applications of tungsten products mainly include the following aspects.
Tungsten resources are unevenly distributed around the world. According to the statistics of the United States geological survey, the world's proven tungsten reserves in 2017 were 3.2 million tons, mainly concentrated in China, Canada, Russia and other countries.China's tungsten reserves reached 1.8 million tons, accounting for more than 56 percent of the global total.
In order to protect tungsten resources, regulate export order, promote product structure adjustment and improve economic efficiency, China implements quota system management on the export of primary tungsten smelting products.Since the quota system was implemented, the export volume of primary tungsten smelting products has been controlled to a certain extent, which has reduced the consumption of China's tungsten reserves to a certain extent.However, China's export quota system has aroused the dissatisfaction of some international buyers such as the United States, the European Union and Japan.
Since 2002, China has started to implement the total amount of tungsten mining quota, limiting the annual production.In 2018, China's total mining quota for tungsten concentrate (with 65% tungsten trioxide content) will be 100,000 tons, including 7,6150 tons for main mining and 23,850 tons for comprehensive utilization.
In 2016, China's tungsten concentrate output dropped by 2.6% year-on-year to 139,700 tons, compared with 139,200 tons in 2017. From January to September 2018, China's tungsten concentrate (65% tungsten trioxide) output was 82,200 tons.Although the national policy strengthens the regulation and control, but our country tungsten mineral industry overexploitation is very serious, most year tungsten concentrate actual output exceeds mining quota more than 50%.
