Left hand "selling weakness," right hand "strengthening"? Xiamen Tungsten has consecutively staged major asset relocations, aiming for tungsten ore self-sufficiency and high-end manufacturing.

The reporter from this publication (chinatimes.net.cn), Dong Hongyan, reports from Beijing

After more than ten years of going back and forth, Xiamen Tungsten Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xiamen Tungsten”, 600549.SH) has finally returned to the negotiation table for the Dahuotang tungsten mine. On the evening of March 25, this domestic tungsten industry leader announced that it plans to jointly acquire 30.17% of the equity interests of Jiangxi Jutong Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiangxi Jutong”) together with Fujian Provincial Industrial Control Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Fujian Industrial Control Group”) and Jiangxi Tungsten Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiang Tungsten Group”).

During the long-term shutdown and period when the target mine was insolvent, the tungsten price surged dramatically between 2025 and 2026, with the price of black tungsten concentrate breaking through the one-million-yuan mark. In the strategic window period of tight supply-and-demand balance for “industrial teeth,” Xiamen Tungsten is actively reallocating assets through a dense sequence of transactions: simultaneously acquiring multiple companies, while divesting real-estate and motor assets, focusing its attention on tungsten mine self-sufficiency and the high-end cutting-tool industry.

At present, industry insiders continue to look favorably on the tungsten price trend. However, Xiamen Tungsten stated that it is difficult to predict the future course of the tungsten price in the current high-price stage. As for whether, during a period of high tungsten prices, developing related processing industries would create cost pressure on the company, Xiamen Tungsten responded that increases in upstream raw-material prices can currently be smoothly passed through to downstream deep-processing products.

A decade-plus long “positioning battle” for tungsten mines

An announcement on the evening of March 25 stated that, to improve tungsten resource self-sufficiency, Xiamen Tungsten, together with Fujian Provincial Industrial Control Group Co., Ltd. and Jiangxi Tungsten Holding Group Co., Ltd., signed a tripartite cooperation agreement. Fujian Industrial Control Group agreed that the company’s related subsidiary would transfer a portion of its equity in Jiangxi Jutong Industrial Co., Ltd. to the company and Jiang Tungsten Group; the equity stake proportion the company plans to acquire is 30.17%.

Xiamen Tungsten and Jiangxi Jutong have had a relationship for more than ten years. In 2010, Xiamen Tungsten indirectly acquired a 30% equity stake in Jiangxi Jutong through Xiamen Sanhong, becoming the second-largest shareholder and locking in the priority supply right to Dahuotang resources. In September 2015, Xiamen Tungsten previously announced that it intended to acquire 32.36% of Jiangxi Jutong’s equity held by Fujian Rare Earth Group for RMB 1.26 billion; combined with the original 30%, it would control the equity to 62.36%.

But at that time, the acquisition did not proceed as planned. On the eve of the transaction, Jiangxi Jutong triggered complex equity litigation/debt disputes, during which the equity was frozen and the ownership was unclear. In 2016, Xiamen Tungsten announced that it would terminate the above acquisition, and the project was put on hold. During the dispute period, Xiamen Tungsten’s 30% stake was diluted or transferred in subsequent equity disputes. It was not until December 2023 that the Jiangxi Provincial High People’s Court issued a final judgment, concluding Jiangxi Jutong’s equity disputes completely, restoring clear property rights and removing legal obstacles for restarting the acquisition.

Currently, Xiamen Tungsten’s tungsten mine self-sufficiency rate is about 20%. This acquisition targets the tungsten mine resource self-sufficiency rate. For this acquisition, Xiamen Tungsten explained that, as the company’s capacity in downstream deep processing and application areas along the tungsten industry chain—such as in hard alloys, cutting tools, tungsten wires, and so on—has increased, the company’s demand for tungsten resources has risen year by year. At present, the tungsten concentrate produced by the company’s three existing operating tungsten mine enterprises and one tungsten mine under construction can only meet part of the company’s needs.

At the same time, Xiamen Tungsten also pointed out that Jiangxi Jutong has mining permits for tungsten mines in both the southern and northern areas of Dahuotang. Currently, it retains approximately 1.383 million tons (WO3 metal content) of resource reserves and approximately 33,000 tons of molybdenum metal content. By acquiring Jiangxi Jutong’s equity, the company will be able to increase its mineral resource reserves and promote the construction of the Dahuotang tungsten mine, thereby improving the company’s self-sufficiency rate of tungsten raw materials, reducing raw-material procurement risks, safeguarding the stability of the company’s production and operations, reducing related-party transactions, supporting the company’s sustainable development, and aligning with the company’s long-term strategic development plan.

However, it is worth noting that in recent years, despite the twists and turns, Jiangxi Jutong’s operations have not recovered. It is understood that Jiangxi Jutong’s Wuning County Dahuotang South Area tungsten mine has been shut down since late December 2020, and the Wuning County Dahuotang North Area tungsten mine has not been producing since December 2015.

According to the announcement materials, in 2024 and 2025, Jiangxi Jutong achieved revenues of RMB 3.8469 million and RMB 5.7052 million, respectively, and net profit losses of RMB 79.4532 million and RMB 89.7877 million, respectively. Its net assets were RMB -182 million and RMB -272 million, respectively, indicating it is insolvent.

Asset reallocation in succession

On the day before announcing its acquisition of Jiangxi Jutong, Xiamen Tungsten also released two asset acquisition plans. On the evening of March 24, Xiamen Tungsten announced that it planned to acquire 69% of the equity of Jiujiang Dadi Mining Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiujiang Dadi”) for RMB 295 million, becoming the controlling shareholder of Jiujiang Dadi, and it also planned to invest RMB 104 million to acquire 70% of the equity of Yuanxing (Xiamen) Precision Tool Co., Ltd.

In Xiamen Tungsten’s acquisition plan for Jiujiang Dadi, Jiangxi Jutong is also one of the participants. The 30% equity stake in Jiujiang Dadi that Xiamen Tungsten plans to acquire comes from Jiangxi Jutong, while the other 39% stake comes from Beijing Shangdaxin Investment Co., Ltd.

The purpose of acquiring Jiujiang Dadi is consistent with that of acquiring Jiangxi Jutong. In the announcement, Xiamen Tungsten stated that this transaction is beneficial for reducing related-party transactions, increasing the company’s resource reserves, and promoting mine construction—thereby improving the self-sufficiency rate of raw materials, lowering raw-material procurement risks, ensuring the stability of the company’s production and operations, enhancing its profitability, and aligning with the company’s strategic development plan.

And similarly to Jiangxi Jutong, Jiujiang Dadi is a company whose main business is mineral development, mining and processing. Its Kunshan tungsten-molybdenum mine is currently in the initial exploration stage, with no production and operating activities, and no business operating revenue. Financial data show that in 2024 and in the first three quarters of 2025, Jiujiang Dadi’s revenue was 0 yuan, and its net assets were all negative.

In recent years, Jiujiang Dadi has mainly relied on loans from the shareholders to sustain operations. As of February 28, 2026, the shareholders Jiangxi Jutong and Xiamen Sanhong provided outstanding loans to Jiujiang Dadi of RMB 159.4467 million and RMB 50.5377 million, respectively.

To further understand the situation, on March 26, a reporter from the Huaxia Times called Xiamen Tungsten’s office of the board secretary (for the relevant executive). Relevant staff told the reporter that the acquisition plan for Jiangxi Jutong and the acquisition focus for Jiujiang Dadi target different tungsten resource projects. Overall, the aim is to improve tungsten mine self-sufficiency.

Apart from laying out mine resources, Xiamen Tungsten has not abandoned its efforts to develop the related industry chain. Yuanxing’s main business is the production and sale of precision threaded tools such as extrusion taps and cutting taps. The products are positioned in the mid-to-high end and are widely used in fields including aviation, automobiles, medical devices, 3C electronics, 5G communications, and wind power. Last year, Xiamen Tungsten announced that its subsidiary, German Jinlu, planned to acquire 100% of the equity of mimatic tooling and carry out related capital increases.

Regarding the acquisition of Yuanxing, Xiamen Tungsten stated that the above transaction is intended to advance the company’s strategy for diversified cutting-tool product development, improve its R&D and manufacturing capabilities for high-performance tap tools, strengthen its ability to provide integrated solutions for cutting tools, and enhance profitability.

In addition to buying assets, Xiamen Tungsten is also disposing of some assets. This March, Xiamen Tungsten announced that it would transfer a 25% equity stake in Suzhou Aiqiagao Si Electric Motor Co., Ltd., whose main business is new-energy-vehicle motors. In February 2023, it transferred a 47.5% equity stake in Chengdu Tongji Real Estate Co., Ltd., and it later gradually exited real-estate development and operations.

Tungsten prices rose by more than 120% within the year

Tungsten is a strategic metal with advantages for China. Since 1991, tungsten mines have been listed under “protective mining of specified mineral types,” with long-term measures of total-volume controls and export restrictions. In recent years, the indicators for total mining volumes have shown a trend of tightening rather than loosening. Meanwhile, under the strict crackdown on illegal mining and environmental regulations, the rate of over-mining of domestic tungsten mines has shown a clear downward trend.

Against this backdrop, from 2025 to 2026, tungsten prices ended the prior low-price range-bound period and entered a phase of rapid surge. According to Wind data, as of March 26, 2026, the average price of black tungsten concentrate (65%, domestic) was 1,008,000 yuan per ton. Compared with 142,500 yuan per ton at the beginning of 2025, the increase exceeded 600%. Compared with 457,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of 2026, the increase exceeded 120%.

Chen Yuting, a tungsten analyst at Juchuang Information Fubao, told a reporter from the Huaxia Times that over the next three years, domestic incremental output will be mainly driven by the commissioning of small- and medium-sized mines, with relatively limited incremental supply. Tungsten is also known as “industrial teeth,” and the application with the largest downstream demand share is hard alloys. In recent years, due to equipment-upgrade policies, demand for hard alloys has shown a mild recovery, while emerging fields (such as nuclear fusion devices, defense industry, and photovoltaic) have driven demand growth in the hard-alloy and tungsten materials segments. Overall, the fundamentals of the tungsten metal market are characterized by a tight balance where supply is smaller than demand.

In Chen Yuting’s view, in 2026 tungsten prices will continue to follow a steady and favorable uptrend, maintaining a robust up-to-the-center-of-gravity performance. Domestic resources are constrained by total-volume control and the difficulty of improving resource quality, making it hard to achieve any obvious increase in supply. Overseas, large mines in countries such as Kazakhstan and South Korea will form the main incremental supply over the next three years, but import increments also will not be able to fully make up the supply shortfall. On the demand side, photovoltaic tungsten wire demand benefits from higher penetration rates and sustains mid-to-high single-digit growth. At the same time, as the macro manufacturing sector recovers mildly and demand in the hard-alloy segment for tungsten continues to increase, the fundamental situation of tight supply and demand is expected to persist.

Overall, the prior rise in tungsten prices has brought a positive impact on Xiamen Tungsten’s performance. In 2025, the prices of Xiamen Tungsten’s main products increased accordingly, and most of its main product sales also rose year over year. According to performance quick results, in 2025, Xiamen Tungsten’s total operating revenue was RMB 46.469 billion, up 31.37% year over year, and its net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 2.311 billion, up 35.08% year over year.

As for the question of whether, during a period of high tungsten prices, positioning related processing industries would create cost pressure for the company, the staff member mentioned above told the reporter that upstream raw-material price increases can currently be smoothly transmitted to downstream deep-processing products. However, the company said there are many factors affecting the tungsten price trend, and it still cannot clearly judge the direction of the future trend.

Editor in charge: Zhang Bei | Editor: Zhang Yuning