# Beryllium: Trading

One integrated company and long-term contracts

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/trading/

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

No exchange lists beryllium. The market is dominated by one vertically integrated US company that mines, refines, alloys and recycles, plus processors in Kazakhstan and China. Prices are negotiated in long-term contracts for alloy strip, rod, metal and oxide. There is no reliable public spot price. Tilton and Guzmán list beryllium among industries run by a world cartel before the Second World War (pdf p. 193). In 2010, Defense Production Act support reestablished domestic beryllium metal production.

#### Where it is bought (buyers)

- Connector, spring and component makers in Asia, the US and Europe buy beryllium-copper strip and rod
- Defence and space contractors buy beryllium metal under US government programmes
- China imported 93.8% of world unwrought beryllium by value in 2023 (Comtrade)
- US imports in 2021-24 came from Kazakhstan (31%), Latvia (25%), Japan (19%) and Germany (5%) (USGS)

#### Where it is sold (sellers)

- Materion (US) sells alloy strip, bulk products, metal, oxide and composites
- Ulba (Kazakhstan) supplied 81.1% of world unwrought beryllium exports by value in 2023 (Comtrade)
- Beryl ore from Brazil, Nigeria, Mozambique, Madagascar and Rwanda goes to processors

#### Exchanges and benchmarks

| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **None** | No exchange contract | No reliable public spot price |

#### Contract types

- Long-term supply contracts for alloy strip, rod, metal and oxide
- Government purchase and Defense Production Act agreements; US stockpile disposals of 7 t of metal were planned for FY2025
- Scrap-return programmes run by the producer (about 40% recovery of Be in alloy scrap)
- Spot purchases of beryl ore from small miners

#### Top trading houses

- Ore is bought by processors and small traders; names and volumes are not published

#### How prices are discovered

- Prices are set in bilateral contracts and not published
- USGS publishes an annual unit value for beryllium-copper master alloy from import data

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/cycles/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/beryllium/links/index.md)