Cemented carbide is a kind of alloy material made by hard compound of refractory metal and bonding metal through powder metallurgy process. Cemented carbide products are mainly tungsten carbide as the hard phase and cobalt as the binding phase. They are obtained by ball milling, spray granulation, pressing and sintering. They have high hardness, strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. Cemented carbide is known as "industrial teeth", which is mainly used in cutting tools, stamping tools, molds, mining and road construction machinery and other fields.

Cemented carbide can be divided into tungsten cobalt alloy, tungsten titanium cobalt alloy, tungsten titanium tantalum (niobium) cobalt alloy, titanium carbide based alloy and coating alloy.

Cemented carbide can be divided into cutting tools, geological mining tools, molds, structural parts, wear-resistant parts, high pressure and high temperature cavity and other uses.

Cemented carbide product demand structure

Cemented carbide is mainly used in cutting tools, mining tools, molds and high pressure and high temperature rejection cavities, among which cutting tools and mining tools account for 33% and 25% of cemented carbide applications respectively. In cutting tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as tool materials, such as turning tools, milling cutters, planers, drills, boring cutters, etc., for cutting cast iron, non-ferrous metals, plastics, chemical fibers, graphite, glass, stone and ordinary steel, as well as difficult to process materials, etc. The cutting process is mainly realized by relying on machine tools. In terms of mining tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as rock drilling tools, mining tools, and drilling tools, and plays an important role in minerals, oil extraction, and infrastructure construction.

Demand for cemented carbide in the field of cutting tools

The downstream application of cutting tools is very extensive. At present, the key customers with greater demand for cutting tool products in China mainly include: automobile industry enterprises; ten major industrial groups such as aviation, aerospace, weapons, shipbuilding, and nuclear industry; machinery, railway locomotives, molds, Textile, energy equipment, agricultural machinery, and major complete sets of equipment manufacturing enterprises. According to statistics, the world's cutting tool demand, general machinery and automobile manufacturing each accounted for about 35%, aerospace accounted for about 10%.

In recent years, the demand for cemented carbide cutting tools in China has increased year by year. In 2016, the demand for carbide cutting tools was about 9686 tons, an increase of 4.15 percent over the previous year. Demand is expected to exceed the 10000-ton mark in 2017.

According to the national plan, by 2020, China will become a manufacturing base for key complete sets of equipment and advanced scientific instruments such as automobiles, large aircraft, ships, electronic components, large-scale integrated circuits, high-end CNC machine tools, all of which will greatly enhance the demand for cutting tools. It is estimated that by 2023, the demand for carbide cutting tools will reach about 13600 tons.

Demand for cemented carbide in the field of geological mining tools

In recent years, China's geology and mining industry has developed rapidly, thus driving the demand for geological mining tools industry, geological mining tools carbide demand is also growing, geological mining tools industry carbide demand in 2016 is about 7512 tons, an increase of 4.39. Demand is expected to grow to around 8000 tonnes in 2017.

With the advancement of coal mine integration, there will be a lot of demand for mining tools. In terms of other minerals, the National Mineral Resources Plan (2016-2020) issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources clearly stated that at present, my country is still in the mid-stage of industrialization, and the growth rate of energy resource demand is slowing down, but the total demand will remain high. It is estimated that by 2020, my country's primary energy consumption will be about 5 billion tons of standard coal, 0.75 billion tons of iron ore, 13.5 million tons of refined copper, and 35 million tons of primary aluminum. Affected by the international mining market, domestic exploration investment tends to decline, but in general, my country's demand for mineral resources is increasing, but domestic mining is in a downward trend. The previous low-capacity and coarse-collection models will gradually be High-capacity mining models are replaced, and the demand for high-quality mining tools will be greater. Prospective Industry Research Institute predicts that by 2023, the demand for cemented carbide for geological mining tools will reach about 10000 tons.