There is no spot
price for tungsten.
Anyone quoting you a per-pound figure off a website has not looked at your material. Here is how tungsten actually gets valued, why the number has to come from your own lot, and what we do to establish it.
Why no ticker exists
- Exchange
- None. No LME contract
- What exists
- Weekly assessments
- Sources
- Fastmarkets, Argus
- License
- No redistribution
- They price
- Refined APT, not scrap
- We price
- Your assayed lot
Tungsten is not traded on an exchange
Copper and aluminum have live screen prices because they trade on the LME. Tungsten does not. There is no contract, no ticker and no spot tick to look up.
What exists instead are assessments. Reporting agencies survey the market and publish a judgment, weekly rather than continuously, for refined products like ammonium paratungstate. Those assessments sit behind subscriptions, and their licenses do not permit anyone to republish them on a public page.
Even if they did, they would be the wrong number for you. An APT assessment prices refined tungsten chemical. Scrap trades on its own regional basis, and for carbide the cobalt content and how contaminated the load is move the value more than the weight does.
A live price here would be illegal to post, wrong for scrap anyway, and something we would have to walk back the moment you called. We would rather just test your material.
Where real tungsten prices come from
- Fastmarkets
- APT, concentrate, ferro-tungsten
- Argus
- Assessments and forecasts
- Asian Metal
- Carbide and powder, daily
- Frequency
- Weekly assessment, not live
- Access
- Subscription, no redistribution
What actually moves your number
- Chemistry
- Tungsten and binder content
- Cobalt
- Binder percentage, on carbide
- Contamination
- Steel, plastic, coolant
- Form
- Solid, powder, sludge
- Quantity
- Lot size and consistency
So we assay your lot instead
You send a representative sample, or on lots above 2,000 lb we come and take one ourselves. We establish what is actually in it. Then we quote that lot, in writing, against what the assay found.
It is slower than quoting a number off a screen. It is also the only way the price still holds when your material lands on our dock.
One consequence worth stating plainly: this is a quantity program. Below a certain lot size the assay costs more than the transaction is worth, so we cannot price small offers. If you generate steadily, that changes the math and it is worth a conversation.
We assay a sample before quoting anything, so the number you get is against your actual material rather than a market average.
Submit a sampleQuestions sellers actually ask
What is tungsten scrap worth per pound?
There is no single answer, and any site that gives you one has not looked at your material. Tungsten is not traded on an exchange, so there is no spot price. Value depends on tungsten and binder content, cobalt percentage on carbide, contamination, form and quantity. We assay a sample of your actual lot and quote against that.
Why can I look up a copper price but not a tungsten price?
Copper trades on the London Metal Exchange, so it has a live contract price. Tungsten has no exchange contract. What exists are weekly assessments published by reporting agencies such as Fastmarkets, Argus and Asian Metal, which survey the market and publish a judgment. Those are subscription products and they price refined material like ammonium paratungstate rather than scrap.
Do I have to send a sample before I get a price?
Yes. On lots above 2,000 lb we can come and take the sample ourselves rather than asking you to ship one. The assay is what makes the quote real, and it is why the number holds once we give it to you instead of moving when the material lands on our dock.
Is there a minimum quantity?
This is a quantity program. Below a certain lot size the cost of sampling and assaying exceeds what the transaction is worth, so we cannot price small offers. If you generate material steadily, accumulated volume changes that and is worth discussing.
Tell us what you have
Material, rough quantity, and how often it accumulates. We will tell you whether it is a fit and what the sample needs to look like.