Cadmium: Characteristics
Soft, toxic and valued only through its compounds
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 23,000 t refined cadmium (2025e), 22,800 t in 2024 | China refined 9,500 t, Korea 4,300 t, Canada and Japan 1,300 t each, Kazakhstan 1,100 t. All primary cadmium is a by-product of zinc smelting. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published | There are no exchange stocks and no commercial stock data. When demand is weak, smelters store cadmium-bearing residues or dispose of them, so the real buffer is unrefined cadmium in zinc smelter waste. The US stockpile buys only CdZnTe substrates (2,800 cm2 planned in FY2025). | USGS MCS 2026; USGS Circular 1365 (2010) |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | USGS gives no cadmium capacity. Output follows zinc smelting: typical zinc ores carry about 0.03% cadmium. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China about 41%, top 3 (China, Korea, Canada/Japan) about 65%, HHI about 2,200 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 2,044 | Korea Zinc, Chinese zinc smelters, Nyrstar and Boliden are the main producers. Company shares are not published. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026 |
| Supply elasticity | nil to price: by-product of zinc (companionality about 95%) | Smelters must remove cadmium from zinc solutions whatever its price. Supply responds only to zinc smelting rates and to whether smelters refine or store the residues. | Nassar et al. 2015; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | follows new zinc smelters; no cadmium-specific projects | Demand growth is from CdTe solar: First Solar's fifth US plant began in mid-2025 and is expected to take US capacity to about 14 GW a year when ramped up in 2026. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | trade value is small and poorly recorded (HS 8107 world imports recorded at only about $61,000 in 2023) | Cadmium moves in 10 t lots of ingots or balls, mostly within Asia. US imports of unwrought cadmium in 2021-24 came from China 50%, Germany 33%. Shipments are regulated as toxic; NiCd batteries move to recyclers as hazardous waste. | UN Comtrade 2023; USGS MCS 2026 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Cadmium is a soft, low-melting, toxic metal. Commercial value now rests on its compounds: cadmium telluride for thin-film solar, nickel-cadmium industrial batteries, and cadmium pigments and coatings. Purity, form and regulatory limits on cadmium in products matter more than mechanical properties.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | 99.95% min in 10 t lots (benchmark); 99.99% and 5N for CdTe and semiconductors | Sets benchmark price and suitability for solar and detector compounds | Fastmarkets via USGS MCS 2026 |
| Melting point and density | 321 C; 8.65 g/cm3 | Low melting point suits coatings and low-melting alloys | CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics |
| Band gap of CdTe | about 1.5 eV | Cadmium is half of every CdTe solar cell | NREL (2012) |
| Corrosion resistance | sacrificial protection of steel in marine and salt environments; low friction | Keeps cadmium plating on aerospace fasteners where zinc-nickel cannot match it | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Electrochemistry (NiCd) | 1.2 V nominal cell voltage | Long life and tolerance of abuse keep NiCd in rail, aviation and backup power | Standard battery data (indicative) |
| Regulatory limit | EU RoHS maximum 0.01% (100 ppm) cadmium in homogeneous materials | Bans cadmium from most electronics, shrinking demand | EU Directive 2011/65/EU |