Tungsten buyers and producers could gain a listed way to manage price risk in early 2027, when CME Group aims to launch a cash-settled futures contract for the metal.
CME announced the plan Oct. 19 and intends to list the contract on COMEX. Its settlement price would draw on Fastmarkets assessments for ammonium paratungstate (APT) in Rotterdam and Baltimore. The contract would settle in cash, with no physical delivery.
Each contract would cover 88.5 metric ton units of tungsten trioxide, roughly equivalent to 1 metric ton of APT at the specified 88.5% purity. CME’s contract fact card says the settlement price would use the average of available assessments during the contract month.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that China produced 67,000 metric tons of tungsten content from mines in 2025, or 79% of estimated global output. The agency also reported that Rotterdam APT prices rose from $331 to $675 per metric ton unit during that year. Those figures featured in earlier EconoTimes coverage of tungsten supply and prices.
China began requiring export licenses for specified tungsten products, including APT, on Feb. 4, 2025. In discussing the price rise, the USGS pointed to China’s export controls and U.S. tariff increases in late 2024. Tungsten is used in metalworking and mining materials, electronics, aerospace equipment and armaments.
CME identifies miners, processors, manufacturers and other buyers as potential users of the futures contract. Grondmet Managing Director Maarten Gassmann said the lack of a forward market has made it harder for the firm’s manufacturing customers to budget for tungsten. A futures position would address price exposure while businesses arrange physical supplies separately.
CME said its metals products averaged 1.2 million contracts traded daily in the first nine months of 2026, up 41% from the same period in 2025. Its proposed tungsten launch still requires regulatory review, and CME has not set an exact first trading date.
