How carbide buyers price scrap

The most common carbide grades work out to roughly 80 to 89 percent tungsten by weight (our arithmetic), and scrap has been priced per kilogram of contained tungsten (USGS). Cemented carbide is hard grains of tungsten carbide (WC) set in a cobalt alloy matrix, as ITIA describes it. Pure WC is 6.13 percent carbon by weight (ITIA), which leaves 93.87 percent tungsten, so a grade's tungsten share is that figure times its WC share.

So 100 pounds of a 90/10 straight grade holds about 84.5 pounds of tungsten. Steel, solder and oil add weight with none.

Sources: ITIA: Properties of intermediates (WC carbon content); ITIA: Applications and markets (straight grade); ITIA: Cemented carbides, a success story (newsletter, June 2010); Pacini et al., Materials 16(4):1347 (2023); USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028 (data year 2000).

Tungsten is priced through APT (ammonium paratungstate), the high-purity intermediate that ITIA says chemical recycling turns scrap back into. USGS wrote in 2005 that APT had become the reference price from ore concentrates up to tungsten carbide powders.

APT is quoted per metric ton unit (mtu) of tungsten trioxide (WO3), which holds 7.93 kg of tungsten (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). The US short ton unit, 20 lb of WO3, holds 15.86 lb of tungsten (Minerals Yearbook 2021).

USGS's 2026 edition reports the Rotterdam APT price rising from $331 to $675 per mtu during 2025, after China's February 2025 export controls on selected tungsten items. A May 2026 draft letter from ETTAC, a Commerce Department trade advisory committee, cites about $3,000 per mtu by mid-2026 as approximate market data, but it is a deliberative draft, not an agency finding.

Sources: ITIA: Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (newsletter, August 2019); USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Tungsten; USGS Minerals Yearbook 2021: Tungsten; ETTAC draft tungsten letter (May 2026).

No. USGS wrote in 2005: "Prices of tungsten-bearing scrap are not published on a routine basis." No neutral source cited here gives a formula, or a share of the APT price, for what scrap fetches.

The one neutral published scrap price we found is historical. In mid-2000, Metal Bulletin (as cited by USGS) put cemented carbide scrap at about $4 to $5.50 per kilogram of contained tungsten, 20 to 30 percent below a year earlier. It is not a price today.

What moves value is better documented: Zeiler et al. (2021) say that on the open market recycling happens only when it pays: processing costs and recyclate revenue are the two main levers, and metal concentration plays a crucial role. USGS (2005) added that, to a certain extent, low cobalt prices cut the recycling of cobalt-bearing scrap.

Sources: USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028 (data year 2000); Zeiler et al., IJRMHM 98:105546 (2021), open access.

Solid pieces and fine particles are recycled differently, so a buyer will ask which you have. USGS defines hard scrap as solid pieces, cemented carbide parts among them. For carbide that means inserts (small indexable cutting tips clamped in a holder), end mills (solid rotary cutters), drills and wear parts. Soft scrap is fine particles: grinding sludge, loose powders, swarf and turnings.

Hard scrap can take the zinc process. USGS (2005) described the scrap being sorted by grade, cleaned of brazing and crushed, then put in molten zinc, which reacts with the cobalt binder and swells the pieces before the zinc is distilled off. The carbide keeps its composition, ready for a new batch of the same or similar grade. ITIA put the zinc share of hard scrap in Europe and the US at about a third in 2019.

The chemical route converts scrap back into APT and takes most soft scrap and most unsorted hard scrap (ITIA). USGS noted, for data year 2000, that it treats all scrap types but tended to cost more and yield less than direct methods.

Sources: USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028; USGS Open-File Report 01-349; ITIA: Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (newsletter, August 2019); Zeiler et al., IJRMHM 98:105546 (2021), open access.

Anything that is not carbide either adds weight without tungsten or must come off before recycling. USGS says the zinc process is not a purification process, so oil, solder and refractory coatings must be removed first, and ITIA warns that coatings and solders left on contaminate the recycled powder.

A brazed tool is a carbide tip brazed to a steel shank (King Saud University lecture), and Zeiler et al. say a worn drill head that is mostly steel may land in a steel scrap tray, its tungsten and cobalt diluted and lost.

Grinding sludge often needs chemical recycling because of oil, refrigerants and other impurities (Pacini et al., 2023). Zeiler et al. add that alternative binder grades and parts made of two or more grades make scrap harder to identify, and that pre-sorting by the end user raises recycling efficiency.

Sources: USGS Open-File Report 01-349; ITIA: Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (newsletter, August 2019); Zeiler et al., IJRMHM 98:105546 (2021), open access; Pacini et al., Materials 16(4):1347 (2023); King Saud University: fundamentals of metal cutting (lecture).

Every carbide price is multiplied by a weight, so the scale matters. NIST says all 50 states have adopted its Handbook 44 and that a scale must be inspected and approved by an authorized state body before commercial use.

Two Handbook 44 (2026 edition) rules you can check yourself: a scale used in direct sales must sit where its reading and the weighing can be seen from a reasonable customer position, and with nothing on it the scale must show zero.

In California, county weights and measures offices register, inspect and test commercial scales, which generally need a CTEP or NTEP certificate. Arizona bars any commercial device that is not licensed or certified, and Nevada's rules follow NIST's recommendations as far as practicable. Weigh your lot yourself before it ships or is picked up.

Sources: NIST weighing and scales FAQ (updated March 6, 2026); NIST Handbook 44 (2026), General Code; NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Scales Code; CDFA Division of Measurement Standards: devices; Arizona Revised Statutes 3-3451; Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 581.

From August 27, 2026 through August 27, 2027, a federal directive allocation order keeps tungsten waste and scrap in the US. BIS (the Bureau of Industry and Security) published it on August 6, 2026, at 91 FR 50701.

• US persons selling tungsten waste and scrap, or black mass, must allocate 100 percent of monthly sales to US persons unless BIS grants an adjustment or exception in advance.
• Tungsten waste and scrap under Schedule B code 8101.97.00.00 must stay physically in the US, and the covered materials may not be exported without explicit BIS authorization.

Comments closed on November 4, 2026, so check the Federal Register for any amendment. Whether your lot counts as 8101.97 is a classification question: the 2026 tariff schedule lists cermets, including their waste and scrap, under 8113.00.00.00, and USGS noted that in 2000 cemented carbide scrap was imported under 8113.

Sources: Federal Register, 91 FR 50701 (August 6, 2026); Harmonized Tariff Schedule 2026, chapter 81; USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028.

Ask for every line of an offer in writing: the weight and the scale behind it, the price per pound and which form it covers, any deduction, any fees, and who pays the freight. A deduction is an amount taken off for steel, oil, coatings or other material that is not carbide. No neutral source sets a standard one, so ask what it covers and how it was worked out.

Keep inserts, round tools, brazed tools and sludge apart, and note which pieces are coated or oily. The carbide offer calculator lines quotes up side by side; choosing a carbide buyer covers the rest.

Our own offer can be read the same way: we buy carbide of any form and brand, pay the shipping on lots sent from any US state, pay cash where state law allows, and pick up in any city in California, Arizona and Nevada. Send the form, a rough weight and photos through the quote form, and see where to sell carbide for the other buyers to compare.