Germanium: Trading
A small, bilateral market among a few refiners
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.Germanium has no exchange. Metal and dioxide trade bilaterally between Chinese, Belgian, Canadian and Russian refiners, specialist traders, and fibre, optics and wafer makers. USGS uses Argus's European assessments for 99.999% material. The market is tiny: world sales of germanium oxides were about $314 million in 2014 (Tilton & Guzmán, pdf p. 27). Pitron noted that germanium cost about ten times as much as gallium (pdf p. 19). With few sellers and buyers who must qualify supply, prices jump on licensing news.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Fibre preform makers in the US, Japan, China and Europe buy germanium tetrachloride
- Infrared optics makers (defence suppliers and thermal-camera firms in the US, Europe and China) buy zone-refined metal
- Space solar-wafer makers such as 5N Plus in Utah buy high-purity metal and recycled wafers
- Governments buy for stockpiles; China's state reserve was reported buying in 2024
Where it is sold (sellers)
- Chinese refiners such as Yunnan Chihong and Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan, under export licence since August 2023
- Umicore (Belgium) and German refiners, the main non-Chinese metal sources for the US
- Teck's Trail refinery in Canada, selling dioxide
- Russian refiners (about 5 t a year)
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| None | No LME, CME, SHFE or MCX contract | Trade is bilateral; China's Fanya Metal Exchange listed minor metals before its 2015 collapse |
Contract types
- Bilateral spot deals priced off PRA assessments
- Term supply contracts with qualified refiners (fibre and defence buyers must qualify material)
- Chinese export licences per shipment and end user since August 2023
- Tolling and scrap-return deals, where optics makers send swarf back for refining
Top trading houses
- Specialist minor-metal traders, many members of the Minor Metals Trade Association; most are private and publish no volumes
How prices are discovered
- Argus assesses European 99.999% metal and dioxide (used by USGS)
- Fastmarkets assesses Rotterdam germanium
- Shanghai Metals Market and Asian Metal publish Chinese prices
- USGS annual average prices give a yearly cross-check