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The scrap carbide price starts with the tungsten inside
A scrap carbide price comes down to three things: how much tungsten and cobalt the lot holds, how clean and well sorted it is, and where the tungsten market sits when you sell. Two boxes of the same weight can be worth very different money, so send photos and a rough weight and we quote your lot.
Tungsten, cobalt and a little carbon: what a pound of carbide holds
Cemented carbide, the stuff machinists just call carbide, is a mass of hard tungsten carbide (WC) grains locked together by a metal binder, in the common grades cobalt.
The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) says commercial grades generally run from 50% to 97% tungsten carbide, sometimes with titanium or tantalum carbide mixed in, and from 3% to 16% cobalt. A 2023 open-access paper from the University of Pisa puts the most common mix at around 85-95% WC and 5-15% cobalt.
The tungsten share, worked out
ITIA, the International Tungsten Industry Association, gives stoichiometric tungsten carbide a carbon content of 6.13% by weight. The other 93.87% is tungsten. So a grade that is 85% WC holds about 80% tungsten by weight, and one that is 95% WC holds about 89%. USGS, citing industry literature, puts the ceiling at 97% WC, or a maximum tungsten content of 91%.
Take a 40 lb box of inserts in a plain tungsten carbide and cobalt grade with 10% cobalt. That is 36 lb of WC, carrying about 33.8 lb of tungsten, plus 4 lb of cobalt and about 2.2 lb of carbon. The calculator below runs the same chemistry for your weight and cobalt share. Real scrap also carries steel, braze, coatings and grit, and that is where lots of equal weight part ways.
Sources: NTP Report on Carcinogens background document: cobalt-tungsten carbide (2010); Pacini et al., Materials 16(4):1347 (2023); ITIA: properties of tungsten intermediates; USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028: tungsten recycling in the United States in 2000.
How much tungsten is in your lot?
Type in what your carbide weighs and slide the cobalt share. You get the tungsten, cobalt and carbon in it, by weight.
This is chemistry, not a price. Each molecule of tungsten carbide (WC) is one tungsten atom bonded to one carbon atom. Using the standard atomic weights, 183.84 for tungsten and 12.0096 to 12.0116 for carbon (NIST, tungsten; NIST, carbon), tungsten makes up about 93.9% of tungsten carbide's weight. Used carbide also carries coatings, braze, steel and grinding grit, so we look at photos of the actual pieces before we quote.
The units behind a carbide scrap price per pound
Tungsten is not priced by the pound of metal. Most ore concentrates are processed into ammonium paratungstate (APT), a white crystalline powder that ITIA calls the most important precursor for most tungsten products. USGS has described the APT price as the reference for ore concentrates upstream and for tungsten carbide powder downstream.
APT and concentrate are priced per metric ton unit (mtu) of tungsten trioxide, WO3. An mtu is 1% of a metric ton, so 10 kg of WO3. USGS says that holds 7.93 kg (17.48 lb) of tungsten, because WO3 is 79.3% tungsten by weight.
No published scrap price
Scrap has no comparable public series. In its 2005 tungsten recycling report, USGS wrote: "Prices of tungsten-bearing scrap are not published on a routine basis." The one cemented carbide scrap price USGS printed there is from mid-2000: about $4 to $5.50 per kilogram, or $2 to $2.50 per pound, of contained tungsten, as reported by the trade journal Metal Bulletin. Note the unit: a pound of tungsten inside the scrap, not a pound of scrap on the scale. It is a 26-year-old figure and history, not a guide to today.
Sources: USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028; ITIA: properties of tungsten intermediates; USGS Minerals Yearbook 2021: Tungsten; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Tungsten.
Scrap carbide prices and the 2025 tungsten run-up
Carbide scrap follows tungsten, and 2025 moved tungsten a long way. The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 edition reports that "in February 2025 China implemented new export controls on selected tungsten items," and that prices rose sharply through the year. Its figures, from Argus Media:
| Price series (USGS MCS 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
| APT, Rotterdam, during 2025 | $331 rising to $675 per mtu |
| Concentrate, average in-warehouse Rotterdam, 2024 | $252 per mtu |
| Concentrate, average in-warehouse Rotterdam, 2025 (estimated) | $380 per mtu |
Run the $675 APT figure through the 7.93 kg of tungsten in an mtu and it comes to about $85 per kilogram, or about $38.60 per pound, of tungsten in refined APT. That is our arithmetic on the price of a purified chemical, not a scrap price, and nobody's offer for a box of worn tooling.
The same edition estimates world mine output at 85,000 metric tons of tungsten in 2025, China's at 67,000, and reports no commercial tungsten mining in the United States after 2015.
Cobalt cathode, 2024 and 2025
The binder has its own market. USGS's 2026 edition puts the average US spot price of cobalt cathode at $16.77 a pound in 2024 and an estimated $21 in 2025. The 2005 USGS recycling report says that, to a certain extent, the cobalt price influences the tungsten recycling rate: higher cobalt prices encourage the recycling of cemented carbides, and in periods of low cobalt prices less cobalt-bearing scrap is recycled.
Sources: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Tungsten; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt; USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028.
Steel, coatings and oil: what the chemistry leaves out
Past the chemistry, a lot's value depends on how much work stands between your scrap and new powder. Zeiler and colleagues (2021) name processing costs and the revenue from the recycled material as the two main levers, and say metal concentration plays a crucial role in whether recycling pays at all.
Solid pieces and fines
USGS calls solid pieces, cemented carbide parts among them, hard scrap, and fine particles soft scrap: grinding sludges, loose powders, swarf (the fine chips and grit thrown off by grinding) and turnings. In its 2005 report USGS called the zinc process the most important direct route for recycling carbide. That process takes hard scrap such as used inserts and is not a purification process, so the scrap has to be carefully sorted and cleaned of oil, solder and coatings first. ITIA says most soft scrap, and most unsorted hard scrap, goes through chemical conversion instead.
Coatings and braze
Many inserts carry a coating; ITIA shows one with a gold-colored TiN top layer. ITIA says coatings and solders must be removed before zinc processing, or they end up as contamination in the reclaimed powder. ITIA also calls carbide that is attached, brazed onto or cast into steel the main reason recycling rates are lower in those segments.
Oil and grit
Grinding sludge often needs chemical recycling because of oil, coolant and other impurities, the Pisa paper says. None of this makes a lot worthless. It is why we ask what form your carbide is in and how it was kept.
Sources: Zeiler et al., Recycling of tungsten: current share, economic limitations and future potential (2021); USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028; USGS Open-File Report 01-349: tantalum recycling in the United States in 1998; ITIA newsletter: recycling of tungsten, part 2 (August 2019); ITIA newsletter: recycling of tungsten, part 1 (May 2018); ITIA: cemented carbides, a success story (June 2010); Pacini et al., Materials 16(4):1347 (2023).
Tungsten waste and scrap under the 2026 federal order
On August 6, 2026, the federal Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a directive allocation order covering tungsten waste and scrap (91 FR 50701), effective August 27, 2026 through August 27, 2027; comments had to be received by November 4, 2026. As published, from August 27, 2026, US persons who sell tungsten waste and scrap must allocate 100% of monthly sales to US persons unless they obtain an adjustment or exception from BIS in advance. Tungsten waste and scrap under Schedule B code 8101.97.00.00 must stay physically in the United States unless BIS authorizes otherwise, and the covered materials may not be exported without explicit BIS authorization.
Which code a lot falls under is a classification question: the 2026 tariff schedule also lists cermets, including waste and scrap, under 8113.00.00.00, and USGS noted some cemented carbide scrap imported under it in 2000. This is not legal advice; read the order and check the Federal Register for later changes.
Sources: Federal Register, 91 FR 50701 (August 6, 2026); Harmonized Tariff Schedule 2026, Chapter 81; USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028.
What we need from you to quote a lot
We quote each lot from what it is, what it weighs and what the photos show. The simplest way to give us all three is the quote form.
- The form. Inserts, end mills, rods, brazed tips, wear parts, bits or sludge. A mixed bucket is fine.
- A rough weight. A bathroom scale will do.
- A few photos. The whole pile, then a handful up close, so coatings, steel shanks, brazed joints and oil show.
- How it was kept. Dry in a closed container, out in the weather, or mixed with steel chips.
You can also email photos to help@carbidebuyersusa.com or call (877) 899-5778. Sorting carbide scrap shows how to keep brazed tools apart from solid carbide.
Once you accept, ship it to us from anywhere in the US and we pay the shipping, or we pick it up in any city in California, Arizona, Utah or Nevada. We pay cash where state law allows it; the scrap metal laws guide explains what each of those states asks of a seller.
Common questions
How much is scrap carbide worth when it is still brazed to steel?
It is valued for the carbide in it, so the steel body adds weight without adding tungsten. Send it as it is, tell us it is brazed, and the quote form photos let us price the lot.
Do scrap carbide prices move with the tungsten market?
Yes. Carbide scrap is valued for its tungsten, and the tungsten market, along with cobalt, sets the backdrop for every quote. So we quote each lot when you are ready to sell.
Should I strip the coating or knock the carbide off a brazed tool first?
No. Send it as it is and tell us what it is. Grinding, crushing or cutting carbide makes dust you do not want to breathe.
Is carbide grinding sludge priced the same way as solid carbide?
It is valued the same way, by its carbide content, but the oil, coolant and abrasive grit in sludge are weight that is not carbide. See sludge, grindings and powder.
More for sellers
Sell scrap carbide
Ship it from any state and we pay the shipping, or we come to you
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Used inserts
Used indexable inserts, coated or not, chipped or worn
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Sludge, swarf and powder
Carbide grinding sludge, swarf and powder
Learn moreSorting carbide scrap
What to keep together, what to separate, and why
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Ship your carbide
Packing heavy carbide so it arrives in one piece
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Tungsten and heavy alloy
Pure tungsten and tungsten heavy alloy
Learn moreReady to sell your carbide?
Send a few photos and a rough weight. From any state, you ship it and we cover the shipping; in California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada, we drive out to you.