Gallium: Characteristics
The metal that melts just above room temperature and powers radar
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 900 t primary low-purity gallium (2025e), up from 848 t in 2024 | China produced about 900 t, Russia 6 t and Japan 3 t. Recycled manufacturing scrap adds a large share of high-purity supply: 40-45% of 2016 consumption came from recycled material. | USGS MCS 2026; IBM (2018) |
| Inventory and stock levels | US consumer stocks 3,400 kg at end-2025, about 2 months of US reported consumption (19,000 kg) | No exchange stocks exist since China's Fanya exchange collapsed in 2015. Governments are building defence stocks; the US launched a strategic minerals stockpile in 2026. Chinese producer stocks are not published. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); this tile's trading data |
| Capacity utilisation | about 53% world (900 t on 1,700 t capacity, 2025e); China about 56% (900 t on 1,600 t) | Chinese national utilisation fell below 50% in June 2019 when prices dropped below cost. Idle capacity outside China (Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Korea, Ukraine, about 100 t) has been shut for years. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); Argus (2019) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China 99%, top 3 100%, HHI about 9,800 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 9,739 | Chalco produced 146 t in 2022, roughly a quarter of world output that year. The rest comes from about a dozen Chinese alumina refiners including East Hope and Jiya. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026; Reuters (2023) |
| Supply elasticity | low outside China: 2-4 years to build a recovery circuit at an existing refinery; China can raise output from idle capacity in months | Gallium is a by-product (companionality 95%) of Bayer liquor, so more gallium needs either more alumina or new circuits. World refineries could in theory recover about 10,000 t a year, but only about 4.4% of that potential was used. | EU CRM 2023; BRGM (2016) |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | about 160 t/yr announced outside China: Alcoa Wagerup 100 t/yr (2026), Metlen 50 t/yr (2027-28), NALCO 10 t/yr | Metlen's integrated expansion is budgeted at EUR 295 million. The US granted $29.9 million to a Louisiana waste-recovery demonstration in 2025 and DOE offered $6 million for R&D. Projects are also announced in Canada, Kazakhstan and Korea. | USGS MCS 2026; Alcoa (2025); Mining Weekly (2025) |
| Logistics and export flows | Chinese unwrought exports fell 94% in 2025; US imported about 25,000 kg of metal | Gallium is shipped by air or in small lots in plastic bottles. China's export licences since August 2023 and US ban (suspended in November 2025 for a year) are the chokepoint. US metal imports came from Canada, Japan, China and Germany in 2021-24. | USGS MCS 2026; this tile's supercycle data |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Gallium matters as a semiconductor ingredient. Gallium arsenide and gallium nitride move electrons faster and withstand higher voltages than silicon, which suits RF chips, power electronics, LEDs and lasers. The metal melts just above room temperature. Commercial value rises steeply with purity, from 4N primary metal to 6N-7N for crystal growth.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | Primary 99.99% (4N); semiconductor 99.9999-99.99999% (6N-7N) | 4N is the traded grade; 6N-7N is needed to grow GaAs and GaN crystals and sells at a premium | USGS MCS 2026; BRGM (2016) |
| Melting point | 29.8 C; liquid to about 2,400 C | Melts in the hand; used in liquid-metal alloys; must be shipped and stored carefully | CRC Handbook |
| Expansion on freezing | about 3% volume expansion on solidification | Shipped in plastic, not glass, containers to avoid breakage | CRC Handbook |
| Band gap | GaAs 1.42 eV; GaN 3.4 eV (silicon 1.12 eV) | Wide gap GaN handles high voltage and emits blue light; GaAs suits RF and infrared lasers | CRC Handbook |
| Electron mobility | GaAs about 8,500 cm2/V s (silicon about 1,400) | Faster switching for phone power amplifiers and 5G radios | Semiconductor reference data (indicative) |
| Breakdown field (GaN) | about 3.3 MV/cm (silicon about 0.3) | Smaller, more efficient chargers, data-centre power supplies and radar | Semiconductor reference data (indicative) |
| Density | 5.91 g/cm3 | Relevant for handling and alloy design | CRC Handbook |