Oriental Tantalum Industry Research Report, 20260512

1. Electronic Information Sector: • Sunlord Electronics: Domestic leader in chip-type inductors and tantalum capacitors. Tantalum accounts for ~4% of its total revenue; annual procurement volume: 20 tons. • Hongda Electronics: Core military-grade tantalum capacitor manufacturer. Tantalum accounts for ~4.5% of its total revenue; annual procurement volume: 25 tons. 2. Semiconductor Sector: • SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation): Core supplier of tantalum sputtering targets (used as diffusion barrier layers in chips). • Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC): Part of the 3D NAND flash memory supply chain. Tantalum is classified as a 'thin-film material consumable' in wafer fabrication, with an extremely low cost share—approximately 0.2%–0.5%. 3. Aerospace & Defense: • China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC); domestic aero-engine manufacturers (tantalum used as a high-temperature alloy additive). 4. Large-Scale Scientific Projects: • ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor): Uses niobium superconducting materials (note: niobium—not tantalum—is used here; this reflects the original text’s technical context); • Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and China Spallation Neutron Source: Employ niobium superconducting radio-frequency cavities. III. Customer Structure (2025 Annual Report): Top five customers generated RMB 660 million in sales, accounting for 42.76% of total revenue. Geographically, domestic sales accounted for 68.16%, while overseas sales accounted for 31.84%. IV. Downstream Application Breakdown: • Electronic Information (48%): Consumer electronics, automotive electronics, 5G infrastructure, AI servers; • Aerospace / Defense (20%): Aero-engines, aerospace equipment; • Semiconductors (15%): Tantalum sputtering targets for chips; • Superconductivity / New Energy (15%): Nuclear fusion, medical MRI systems, corrosion-resistant chemical equipment. V. Oriental Tantalum’s core competitors fall clearly into two groups: the global 'Big Three' and major domestic players—reflecting an industry structure dominated by three global giants, supplemented by strong regional competitors. International Top-Tier Competitors (Global Tier-1): 5.1 Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) • Position: Undisputed global leader in tantalum powder, especially in high-end markets. • Advantages: World-leading technology for high-capacitance, ultra-high-purity tantalum powder for military, aerospace, and automotive applications. • Deep strategic partnerships with top-tier capacitor manufacturers such as Vishay and KEMET—resulting in exceptionally high customer stickiness. • Market share: ~30%–35% of global capacitor-grade tantalum powder—Oriental Tantalum’s strongest rival. Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global leader in specialty chemicals and high-performance materials. Its core products include carbon black, conductive additives, fumed silica, and aerogels. Its primary B2B manufacturing customers operate in four key sectors: tires & rubber, electric vehicle batteries, industrial plastics, and inks & coatings. 5.2 Key Customer Segments (by Industry): 1. Tire & Rubber Manufacturing (largest customer segment, ~45%–50% of revenue): Cabot is the world’s premier supplier of reinforcing carbon black for tires, serving leading global tire manufacturers: • Michelin • Bridgestone — long-standing core customer; in February 2026, Cabot acquired Bridgestone’s carbon black plant in Mexico to deepen collaboration. • Goodyear • Continental AG • Sumitomo Rubber Industries

Tantalum Metal Industry Chain – Midstream Segment: Smelting & Processing Technologies and Landscape of Major Producers

This method was proposed in 1960, using potassium fluorotantalate and metallic sodium as raw materials, with halide salts added as diluents for the reduction reaction. The reaction is highly exothermic; reaction rate is controlled by regulating temperature. Advantages include relatively low production cost; disadvantages include high energy consumption, significant environmental pollution, rapid grain growth of tantalum powder under high temperatures (leading to excessively large average particle size), unsuitability for producing high-capacitance capacitor-grade tantalum powder, and declining yield [5]. (2) Magnesium/Sodium Reduction of Tantalum Oxide Developed by Germany’s H.C. Starck, this process vaporizes metallic magnesium above 800°C and uses the gaseous magnesium to reduce tantalum oxide. The resulting tantalum powder offers tunable particle size distribution, high purity, high specific capacitance, and controllable surface morphology. Metallic impurities (e.g., Fe, Ni) are lower than in sodium-reduced powder, but oxygen and magnesium contents are higher. The process demands sophisticated equipment and its core technology is held exclusively by a few leading enterprises [1][5]. (3) Homogeneous Reduction Method & (4) Electro-Deoxidation of Tantalum Oxide (FFC Process) Both methods remain at the research stage, facing challenges related to process stability and cost-efficiency, and have not yet achieved commercial-scale application [5]. 2.3 Purification & Impurity Removal: Core Technical Challenge Purification of tantalum powder comprises three sequential steps: aqueous/acid washing, thermal treatment, and deoxygenation. Metallic impurities (Fe, Ni, Cr, Cu, etc.)—being highly reactive—can be effectively removed via acid leaching. Non-metallic impurities (C, O, Si, etc.), however, exhibit low reactivity and are ubiquitous in ambient air; thus, they are easily re-introduced post-purification, making non-metallic impurity removal a key technical bottleneck [5]. In impurity removal, both U.S.-based Cabot and Oriental Tantalum rank among the world’s leaders. Cabot employs sequential leaching with 15% nitric acid followed by 2% hydrofluoric acid, yielding tantalum powder with a Scott density up to 18 g/in³ and >90% of particles smaller than 55 μm. Oriental Tantalum has independently developed water-washing and acid-leaching equipment, optimizing equipment configuration, washing conditions, and acid-leaching parameters [1]. Oriental Tantalum’s 2018 patented method for preparing high-purity tantalum powder (patent granted) achieves GDMS-measured purity >99.995%, oxygen content ≤1000 ppm, nitrogen ≤50 ppm, hydrogen ≤20 ppm, and magnesium ≤5 ppm, with median particle size D50 <25 μm. In July 2022, Oriental Tantalum filed another invention patent for high-purity tantalum powder, specifying combined W + Mo + Nb content <0.6 ppm and oxygen <600 ppm—suitable for fabricating ultra-high-purity tantalum target billets. As of August 2022, Oriental Tantalum held 99 active patents [1]. In 2025, the company achieved domestic substitution for multiple ultra-high-purity tantalum powder products [3]. 2.4 Downstream Processing: Tantalum Wire, Tantalum Ingots, and Tantalum Target Billets Tantalum powder produced via pyrometallurgy undergoes further processing to yield foundational products for downstream users: • Tantalum Wire: Produced from tantalum powder through isostatic pressing, sintering, swaging, and wire-drawing. Used as the anode lead material in capacitors. A trend toward finer diameters is evident; wire diameter precision and surface quality directly impact end-product reliability. • Tantalum Ingots: Fabricated from tantalum powder via electron-beam melting or vacuum arc melting, achieving purity >99.95%; serve as feedstock for subsequent high-value-added semi-finished products.

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