CME Group to Launch Tungsten Futures to Meet Rising Demand for Critical Minerals
The planned contract follows record metals trading activity, with daily volume up 41% year over year.
Sentiment and the balance of points
Rhea-AI Sentiment reads the wording of the document, how positive or negative its language is on a 1 to 5 scale. The balance of points shown with the takes weighs what the document actually discloses, so the two can disagree, for example when a trial that missed its main goal is described in upbeat language.
Rhea-AI Summary
CME Group (CME) plans to launch tungsten futures, with trading scheduled to start by early Q1 2027 pending regulatory reviews. The contract will be financially settled using the Fastmarkets assessment for tungsten APT (ammonium paratungstate), duty unpaid, on a cost, insurance and freight basis for Rotterdam and Baltimore. It will be listed by and subject to the rules of COMEX.
CME Group's metals business recorded 1.2 million contracts traded daily in the first nine months of 2026, up 41% year over year and a record for the business. Tungsten currently has an active spot market but no futures market.
How this balance works
Rhea-AI gives every point it takes from this document a weight. Minor counts 1, Moderate 3 and Major 9, so one Major point outweighs several Minor ones. The bar adds up the weights on each side, and when neither side holds more than 65% of the total the balance reads Mixed.
It reads the document as published, with the same rules for every company, and it does not look at what the market expected or at how the stock traded, so a point can be objectively good on a day the stock falls.
Rhea-AI Sentiment measures something else, the tone of the wording.
Positive
- Moderate pointMetals daily trading volume reached a record 1.2 million contracts in the first nine months of 2026, up 41% year over year.
Negative
- Minor pointRelevant regulatory reviews remain pending before tungsten futures trading can start by early Q1 2027.
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
With annual production between 85,000 and 95,000 metric tons, the global tungsten market is worth over
The contract will be financially settled based on the Fastmarkets assessment for tungsten APT (Ammonium Paratungstate) duty unpaid basis CIF Rotterdam and
"Tungsten sits at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, semiconductor technologies and geopolitics, and our clients are increasingly seeking to hedge their exposure and improve price transparency," said Jin Hennig, Managing Director and Global Head of Metals at CME Group. "CME Group Tungsten futures will join our growing suite of critical minerals and energy transition metal products, providing clients more opportunities to manage risk as global supply chains restructure."
"This contract is an important new tool to manage the commercial risks involved in the physical trading and logistics of tungsten," said Quentin Lamarche, CEO, TechMet SCM. "As critical mineral supply is at the forefront of every major economy, having transparent forward pricing will support reliable, long-term western supply chains."
"For our manufacturing clients, tungsten is essential to production but has been difficult to budget for without a forward market," said Maarten Gassmann, Managing Director, Grondmet. "This contract fills that gap, allowing them to plan their operations with greater cost certainty."
"Growing volatility and concentrated supply are increasing the need for transparent, trusted price benchmarks in the tungsten market," said Raju Daswani, CEO of Fastmarkets. "The launch of this contract, based on Fastmarkets' tungsten APT assessment, is a significant step in the market's development, connecting physical-market price discovery with new opportunities to manage price risk."
Trading in CME Group's metals business set a new record in the first nine months of 2026, with a total of 1.2 million contracts traded daily across precious and industrial metals activity, up
The new contract will be listed by and subject to the rules of COMEX. For more information, please visit here.
As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.
CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and
About Fastmarkets
Fastmarkets is an industry-leading PRA and information provider for the agriculture, forest products, metals, carbon and energy transition markets. Its benchmark prices, analytics, forecasts, and insights are critical to customers seeking to trade, manage risk, and understand complex global markets.
Fastmarkets was founded in 1913, with a heritage dating back to 1865 through several of its acquired brands. Fastmarkets employs more than 700 people worldwide, with offices across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The company is privately held and backed by Astorg, a leading European private equity firm.
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SOURCE CME Group
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