Indium: Characteristics
The transparent conductor behind every touchscreen
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 1,100 t refinery output (2025e) | China refined 760 t, Korea 180 t, Japan 65 t and Canada 40 t. Recycling of ITO manufacturing scrap in Japan and Korea adds a large but unquantified volume. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Inventory and stock levels | Fanya legacy stock about 3,600 t, roughly 3 years of world refinery output | The former Fanya exchange stock sits in Chinese court custody; a 2019 auction failed. There are no exchange warehouses, and buyers hold their own inventory against Chinese licensing risk. | Fastmarkets (2017); Lipmann Walton (2020); USGS MCS 2026 (derived) |
| Capacity utilisation | about 65% world (1,100 t on 1,700 t capacity, 2025e); China about 69%, Korea about 58% | Belgium (19 of 50 t) and France (21 of 70 t) run well below capacity. Spare capacity means supply can rise if prices justify it, within the limit of zinc residue feed. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China about 70%, top 3 (China, Korea, Japan) about 92%, HHI about 5,200 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 4,925 | Korea Zinc is the largest single non-Chinese producer; Teck, Nyrstar and Umicore follow. No top-5 company share is published. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026 |
| Supply elasticity | low: by-product of zinc (companionality 95%); recovery circuits take years | Primary indium output rose 1,675% in 1975-2012 as smelters added circuits, but zinc output does not follow indium prices. China's 2017 environmental crackdown on zinc mines cut indium output by about 20%. | Nassar et al. 2015; Fastmarkets (2017) |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no large named projects; about 600 t of idle refinery capacity | Growth is expected to come from existing smelters raising recovery and from more ITO scrap recycling. USGS notes rising indium phosphide demand from 5G and AI data centres. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | China's unwrought exports fell 72% year on year by September 2025 | US imports (about 220 t) came from Korea (25%), Japan (22%), China (12%) and Canada (11%) in 2021-24. Indium ships in small ingot lots, often by air, to target makers in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. China's February 2025 export restrictions are the chokepoint. | USGS MCS 2026 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Indium is used mostly as indium tin oxide, a coating that conducts electricity yet stays transparent, which is why every LCD and touchscreen needs it. The soft metal wets glass and stays ductile at low temperature, suiting seals, solders and thermal interfaces. Indium phosphide lasers carry data in optical fibre. Purity and target-making yield drive value.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | 99.99% (4N) traded metal; 5N-6N for ITO targets and InP crystals | 4N sets the Argus US and Rotterdam prices; higher grades suit semiconductors | Argus via USGS MCS 2026 |
| ITO composition | about 90% In2O3 and 10% SnO2 by weight | Standard sputtering target recipe for transparent electrodes | Industry practice (indicative) |
| Transparency and conductivity of ITO | about 85-90% visible transmittance at roughly 10-100 ohms per square (indicative) | Combines conductivity and clarity better than most substitutes such as silver nanowires or PEDOT | Display industry data (indicative) |
| Melting point and softness | 156.6 C; Mohs hardness about 1.2; very malleable | Low-temperature solders, cryogenic seals and thermal interface pads | CRC Handbook |
| InP band gap | 1.34 eV; lasers and detectors at 1.3-1.55 microns | Matches low-loss windows of optical fibre for telecom and data-centre transceivers | CRC Handbook |
| Density | 7.31 g/cm3 | Relevant for handling and alloy design | CRC Handbook |