Almonti’s tungsten mine in Sangdong, South Korea in March 2026.
almonti
The Beijing-Iran war is squeezing global commodity markets already under pressure from China’s export controls and stockpiling efforts.
Prices of three key elements – tungsten, sulfur and helium – have risen sharply in recent weeks.
Although no commodity is as widely traded as oil, the surge suggests that the impact of the Middle East conflict could curb production of semiconductors that advance artificial intelligence.
tungsten, a metal almost as hard as diamondmakes electrical connections in the core Of a semiconductor chip. sulfuric acidA sulfur byproductclears up Chip Wafers. Helium gas enables smooth production of semiconductors since Prevents unwanted chemical reactions In the manufacturing process.
These are some of the ways in which these three elements have become important to modern manufacturing, including defense.
Beijing had begun increasing its control over vital supplies even before the Iran war began on February 28, partly because tensions with the US had increased over the past few years.
China started Banning tungsten exports exactly a year ago, and in December called Strict limits on sulfuric acid exports. Helium, a gas that is difficult to store, saw Chinese import volumes rise by 15.7% in 2025, after rising by nearly 65% in 2024, according to Wind Information.
The Iran war and bottlenecks at the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Middle East shipping route for energy and chemicals, have turned some oversupply situations into undersupply, exacerbating existing shortages.
Prices of the three commodities have risen more than oil in some cases. The widely used fossil fuel has surged more than 50% in March, putting Brent on track for a record month.
“While the Chinese supply chain is being viewed as more resilient than many peers, the risk of disruption to chemicals as raw materials for manufacturers in selected regions is higher than expected based on the response,” Goldman Sachs Analysts said in a report late last week, citing about 40 commodity-related meetings and site visits in China.
tungsten
Tungsten hit a record high of over $3,000 late last week, representing an increase of over 50% for the month and a more than tripling of the price since the end of December. It is based on an industry benchmark called “Ammonium Para Tungstate (APT)” in FastMarket’s metric ton units, or MTU, as quoted by Tungsten Miner. almonti.
Almonte officially reopened a large tungsten mine in Sangdong, South Korea, earlier this month, and plans to begin producing some tungsten at a project in the US state of Montana this year.
Company CEO Lewis Black told CNBC that demand for tungsten in the defense sector has been “extremely strong” since the beginning of last year, but there has been no notable change despite the Iran war.
“There is no material to store. That’s probably the biggest change,” he said.
sulfur
Goldman Sachs analysts cited a local Chinese miner in Africa as saying that the price of sulfuric acid in Africa is now at least 30% higher than before the war, and is still rising.
Other assessments point to a modest increase in prices.
Sulfur prices in China, including costs and freight, rose about 13% from early March to $621 a ton as of March 26, according to S&P Global Platts.
“An effective blockade of 2-3 months would become a severe supply shock, especially as freight/insurance remains high and Middle East origin cargoes become harder to execute,” Pan Yuya, lead analyst for sulfur and phosphate raw materials at S&P Global Energy, and Isaac Zhao, senior lead analyst for China fertilizers at S&P Global Energy, said in a March 20 note.
S&P analysts said about 56% of China’s sulfur imports in 2025 will come from the Middle East.
“Even before the Middle East conflict, sulfur prices were rising sharply due to market tightening. Now sulfur prices are at fresh record highs, warranting further investigation of the ‘super squeeze’ in this obscure commodity,” HSBC analysts said in a March 16 report.
helium
Helium prices have nearly doubled since the Iran war began, according to Fitch Ratings.
Since most trading occurs through long-term private contracts between industrial gas suppliers and manufacturers, it is difficult to determine industry-wide prices, said Shelley Jang, director of Asia-Pacific corporate ratings at Fitch.
Iranian missile attacks this month Paralyzed a major industrial center in Qatar, which produces about one-third of the world’s helium.
This means helium supplies will not be restored any time soon, said Christopher Ecclestone, mining strategist and principal at Hallgarten & Co.
In a sign of further tightness in the market, helium prices in China’s Henan province have fallen this year to 600 yuan ($86.81) per bottle from a low of 545 yuan ($78.85) on Feb. 28, according to Wind Information.
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The shortages caused by the Iran war are the latest supply chain disruption in global markets, which faced similar shocks from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led companies to diversify and countries like China to increase storage plans.
“Access to supplies of certain physical materials where production and processing is concentrated in China will become more frequent topics Regarding negotiations with Beijing,” Rhodium Group said in a March 24 report.
Limited price transparency also means the shortage may be worse than available data suggests.
Tungsten and helium prices are rising, “but you don’t have anyone buying saying, ‘Oh my God, we don’t have enough product,'” Ecclestone said. “Defense contractors should have tungsten warehouses, but they don’t.”
He said, “The world has become lazy. It thinks life is like a supermarket, the product is a packet of cornflakes or a few tons of sulfuric acid.” “Some supermarket aisles of goods have been cut.”
