Bismuth: Characteristics
The heavy but gentle metal that replaces lead
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 16 kt refinery output (2025e) | China refined 14 kt, Korea 1 kt, Japan and Laos 0.5 kt each. World Mining Data shows 7.3 kt for 2024 on a different basis. | USGS MCS 2026; World Mining Data 2026 |
| Inventory and stock levels | US consumer stocks 360 t at end-2025, about 4 months of US apparent consumption (1,000 t) | China's Fanya exchange held 16,636 t in 2014, more than a year of world output, and its collapse weighed on prices for years. There is no current exchange stock. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); this tile's supercycle data |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | USGS states that bismuth production capacities were unavailable. Output depends on lead, tungsten and zinc processing, and Chinese output fell below 1,200 t in February 2025 on feed shortage. | USGS MCS 2026; Argus (2025) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China about 86-88%, top 3 (China, Korea, Japan) about 95%, HHI about 7,500 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 6,764 | No company shares are published; Chinese lead and tungsten smelters in Hunan and Korea Zinc are the main producers. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026 |
| Supply elasticity | very low: by-product (companionality about 95%) | A fourfold price rise in 2025 brought no quick supply response, because supply follows lead refining and tungsten mining. Only one Chinese mine produces bismuth as its main product. | EU CRM 2023; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no named new capacity | USGS lists no projects. Extra supply would come from adding bismuth recovery at lead smelters outside China, or from tungsten projects in Vietnam and elsewhere. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | world HS 8106 exports about $92 million (2024); China 44.4% | The US (24.2%), Germany (16.8%) and China (12.7%) are the largest importers by value; India took 6.6%. Metal moves in small container lots. Chinese export licensing from February 2025 is the chokepoint; US imports from China fell 40% to about 460 t in 2025. | UN Comtrade 2024; USGS MCS 2026 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Bismuth is a heavy metal with low toxicity, which makes it the standard replacement for lead in plumbing brass, solders, shot and free-machining steel. Its very low melting point and expansion on freezing suit fusible alloys and fire-sprinkler triggers. Most volume goes into pharmaceutical and cosmetic compounds, where purity limits on lead and arsenic matter most.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | 99.99% (4N) metal, Rotterdam in-warehouse basis | Sets the benchmark price; pharmaceutical compounds need tight Pb, As and Ag limits | Fastmarkets via USGS MCS 2026 |
| Melting point | 271 C | Base of fusible alloys (sprinklers, lens blocking, well plugs) and low-temperature solders | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Low-melting alloys | Bi-Sn eutectic (58Bi-42Sn) melts at 138 C; Wood's and Field's metals below 100 C | Lead-free soldering of heat-sensitive electronics and safety devices | CRC Handbook |
| Density and toxicity | 9.78 g/cm3 (lead 11.34), low toxicity | Replaces lead in shot, weights and brass; US lead-free plumbing limit of 0.25% Pb lifted demand from 2014 | CRC Handbook; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Expansion on solidification | about 3.3% volume expansion on freezing | Fills moulds precisely in casting and offsets shrinkage in type metals | CRC Handbook |
| Thermal and magnetic behaviour | Thermal conductivity about 8 W/m K; the most diamagnetic metal | Used in thermoelectric bismuth telluride and specialty sensors | CRC Handbook |