The Tungsten Repricing Didn't Stop in 2025
US imports of ammonium tungstates ran $134.8 million in the first half of 2026 against $51.5 million a year earlier, and they did it on 28.6 percent fewer tonnes. June cleared customs at $182.38 a kilogram. China's share of the money went from 36 percent to 53 percent while its share of the tonnes barely moved.
The September trade release came out on Wednesday last week and every chemical import line in it fell. Organic chemicals down $499m on the month, fertilizers and pesticides down $53m, plastic materials down $33m, other chemicals down $32m.
One line went up. Inorganic chemicals, $1,371m, up $132m.
So we went down into it. The biggest single mover in the chapter turns out to be a product most of this list buys without ever seeing the tariff line it arrives under.
"If the tonnage never changed, what exactly did we buy?"
The Line Is Literally Called Ammonium Tungstates
HTS 2841.80.0010, printed in the tariff table of the USGS tungsten chapter at 5.5% ad valorem. That six-digit code is where ammonium paratungstate enters the United States, the traded form of tungsten that a converter turns into blue oxide, then powder, then carbide.
Imports under it ran $232.9m in the first eight months of 2026 against $67.3m a year earlier. Largest dollar increase of any six-digit line in chapter 28, ahead of anhydrous ammonia.
And the volume did nothing (chart below).
The rest of this brief is for subscribers.
The capacity math, the trade-flow read, and what it means for the products you buy.
$50 a month, or $400 a year.
Already a subscriber? Sign in