China's Tungsten Export Controls Ripple Through Global Supply Chains, From AI Chips to Weapons

Beijing's export controls on tungsten, imposed in 2025, have sent shockwaves through multiple industries worldwide. In Japan, the price of tungsten hexafluoride — a gas essential for manufacturing advanced AI chips on 3- to 7-nanometre nodes — has tripled year-on-year, prompting major producers Showa Denko Kanto and Central Glass to plan production suspensions in July, with Samsung Electronics and DB HiTek among the chipmakers warned of potential disruptions. Japan's tungsten imports from China fell 50 percent in April compared to the 2025 monthly average, and alternative suppliers have proven difficult to secure given China's dominance of global reserves. On the defense side, the U.S. has consumed munitions containing tungsten at an extraordinary pace — firing more than 850 Tomahawk missiles in roughly four weeks of strikes against Iran, far exceeding typical annual procurement — while also deploying Precision Strike Missiles that each spray over 180,000 tungsten pellets. In response, the Pentagon has urged more than 1,500 defense-sector companies and institutions to boost domestic production, and the U.S. government has backed several nascent mining projects in Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, though none are expected to produce at scale before 2027 at the earliest. Industry figures are calling on the government to provide price protections to shield new domestic producers from the risk of China flooding the market once restrictions ease.