China's APT Output Rises 1.5% MoM in Nov 2025; Profitability Returns

According to SMM data, China's domestic ammonium paratungstate (APT) output in November 2025 increased by 1.5% month-on-month but decreased by approximately 6% year-on-year. The operating rate of the APT industry in October was around 70.4%, up 0.3 percentage points month-on-month.

In November, domestic APT market prices fluctuated at a high level, and industry profitability recovered moderately. However, mainstream manufacturers mainly focused on delivering long-term orders, resulting in limited circulation of spot orders in the market. During the month, tungsten concentrate production quotas were issued in multiple domestic regions, reducing the procurement difficulty of tungsten concentrate for APT plants and supporting a slight increase in operating rates. Nevertheless, in late November, tungsten concentrate prices rose sharply, prompting some APT enterprises to adopt a wait-and-see attitude again. Both raw material and finished product inventories in the industry remained at a low level.

From a cost perspective, the average monthly price of domestic 65% black tungsten concentrate in November was 321,300 yuan per standard ton, leading to an average production cost of approximately 465,000 yuan per ton for APT. The industry shifted from a loss to a profit, with an average monthly profit of around 8,560 yuan per ton, indicating that the industrial chain profits were transmitted to the downstream smelting segment.

Looking ahead to December, affected by factors such as limited available production quotas for mines and the completion of 2025 annual targets by some mines, the output and shipments of tungsten concentrate are expected to remain tight. Downstream tungsten products such as APT may still face challenges in raw material procurement. Additionally, some enterprises have planned maintenance at the end of the year, so domestic APT output is anticipated to decrease month-on-month in December.