Japan’s Chipmakers Face July Halt as Almonty Secures $773M to Build a China-Free Tungsten Pipeline
Published on 06/19/2026 at 12:33 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The delicate supply chain of the world's most advanced semiconductors is about to snap. Two leading Japanese chemical firms — Showa Denko Kanto and Central Glass — have warned Samsung, SK Hynix and DB HiTek that their stocks of tungsten hexafluoride, an indispensable gas for etching 3- to 7-nanometer chips, will reach critically low levels by July 2026. Without fresh supplies, production lines could grind to a halt. The culprit is China. Beijing throttled tungsten exports in late 2025 in retaliation for US tariffs, and by January 2026 had restricted overseas shipments to just 15 authorised companies, giving the state total control over quantity, timing and destination.
For Almonty Industries, this geopolitical bottleneck has become a commercial lifeline. The Canadian-listed miner is one of the few non-Chinese sources of tungsten, and it has just completed a financing blitz to cement its position. A heavily oversubscribed convertible bond — sized at roughly $773 million and paying 2.25% interest until July 2031 — landed with an initial conversion price of $27.40 per share, a 32% premium to the reference share price. The company’s equity has responded accordingly, trading recently at around $18.33 as momentum builds.
The capital injection serves two immediate purposes: refinancing $50 million of outstanding debt and bankrolling an aggressive expansion of the Sangdong mine in South Korea. That operation entered commercial production in March 2026 and is already transforming Almonty’s finances. First-quarter revenue jumped 221% year on year to C$25.4 million, driven by higher tungsten prices and strong output from the Panasqueira mine in Portugal. Operating cash flow swung from a deep negative to a positive C$9.7 million, while adjusted EBITDA flipped to a C$6.1 million profit. The company is now a profitable producer.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Almonty?
Sangdong currently processes 640,000 tonnes of ore annually, yielding roughly 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate. A second-phase expansion due in 2027 aims to double that capacity. Meanwhile, new treasury is also funding an accelerated drilling programme at Sangdong for molybdenum, a metal in tight supply in South Korea. The management reshuffle underscores the strategic pivot: Jorge Beristain, formerly a Deutsche Bank mining analyst, took over as chief financial officer on 1 June, and the headquarters have been relocated from Toronto to Dillon, Montana — a move that aligns Almonty squarely with US defence and technology supply chains.
The American footprint is no coincidence. In Montana, Almonty owns the Gentung project, which could begin production in the second half of 2026. Timing is everything: from January 2027, the Pentagon will be barred from purchasing Chinese tungsten, and the United States has not commercially mined the metal since 2015. Shareholders reinforced the geopolitical message on 9 June by electing two retired US generals, Gustave F. Perna and Alan Estevez, to the board with more than 99% of the vote.
What Almonty is selling goes beyond refined ore. The company is pitching itself as a bet on a Western-controlled critical-minerals pipeline, one that investors are increasingly willing to buy despite near-term valuation concerns. With Japanese chip factories staring at a shutdown in July and the US procurement ban just six months away, the risk of relying on Chinese supplies has never been more tangible. For Almonty, the timing of its $773 million war chest could hardly be better.
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