The tungsten is an important strategic mineral in the industrial manufacturing and the modern national defense. As the largest producer and exporter of the tungsten, China supplies the tungsten-containing products in various forms. However, China's contribution, benefits, and position in the global tungsten value chain have not been well explored. Based on the data of the import and the export of China's tungsten from 1992 to 2018, and on the perspective of the value flow and the material flow, this paper analyzes the global tungsten supply and value chains, and it is shown that China plays the role of the "global tungsten processing giant" in the supply chain, but still in a subordinate position in the value chain, with the risk of "locked in the low value-added stage" and "highly dependent in the high value-added stage". Several specific features are as follows:(1) From the perspective of the material flow, China is a net-exporter of the tungsten, with the scale of the net-export continuously expanding, exporting mostly the tungsten semi-products and importing mostly the primary and metal tungsten products. (2) From the perspective of the value flow, the trade value and the surplus of China's tungsten show a significant growth trend, while the unit price in the imports is much higher than that in the exports. (3) By combining the perspectives of the material and value flows, the total volume and the structure of China's tungsten trade show asymmetric characteristics. Based on this analysis, to promote its competitiveness in the global tungsten value chain, China has to:(1) encourage the import of the tungsten raw materials such as the tungsten concentrate and the tungsten waste to enhance the tungsten material security; (2) increase the export tariff of the tungsten semi-products and the low-end tungsten metal products to encourage the enterprises to focus on the deep processing; (3) support the enterprises of the tungsten metal products to improve the competitiveness of the export products.

tungsten  /  critical materials  /  international trade