Demand for Beryllium

U.S. beryllium consumption
At present, the world’s beryllium consumption countries are mainly the United States and China, and other data such as Kazakhstan are currently missing. By product, beryllium consumption in the United States mainly includes metal beryllium and beryllium copper alloy. According to USGS (2016) data, the consumption of mineral beryllium in the United States was 218 tons in 2008, and then increased rapidly to 456 tons in 2010. After that, the growth rate of consumption slowed down significantly, and the consumption dropped to 200 tons in 2017. According to the data released by USGS, in 2014, beryllium alloy accounted for 80% of downstream consumption in the United States, metal beryllium accounted for 15%, and others accounted for 5%.
Judging from the supply and demand balance sheet, the overall domestic supply and demand in the United States is in a state of balance, with little change in import and export volume, and a large fluctuation in consumption corresponding to production.
According to USGS (2019) data, according to the sales revenue of beryllium products in the United States, 22% of beryllium products are used in industrial parts and commercial aerospace, 21% in the consumer electronics industry, 16% in the automotive electronics industry, and 9% in the automotive electronics industry. In the military industry, 8% are used in the communications industry, 7% in the energy industry, 1% in the pharmaceutical industry, and 16% in other fields.

According to the sales revenue of beryllium products in the United States, 52% of beryllium metal products are used in the military and natural science fields, 26% are used in industrial parts and commercial aerospace, 8% are used in the pharmaceutical industry, 7% are used in the communications industry, and 7% are used in the communication industry. for other industries. Downstream of beryllium alloy products, 40% are used in industrial components and aerospace, 17% are used in automotive electronics, 15% are used in energy, 15% are used in telecommunications, 10% are used in electrical appliances, and the remaining 3% are used in military and medical.

Chinese beryllium consumption
According to Antaike and customs data, from 2012 to 2015, the output of metal beryllium in my country was 7~8 tons, and the output of high-purity beryllium oxide was about 7 tons. According to the beryllium content of 36%, the equivalent beryllium metal content was 2.52 tons; the output of beryllium copper master alloy was 1169~1200 tons. According to the beryllium content of the master alloy of 4%, the consumption of beryllium is 46.78~48 tons; in addition, the net import volume of beryllium materials is 1.5~1.6 tons, and the apparent consumption of beryllium is 57.78~60.12 tons.
The application of domestic metal beryllium is relatively stable, mainly used in aerospace and military fields. Beryllium copper alloy parts are mainly used in the manufacture of connectors, shrapnel, switches and other electronic and electrical equipment devices, these beryllium copper alloy components are used in aerospace vehicles, automobiles, computers, defense and mobile communications and other fields.
Compared with the United States, although my country’s market share in the beryllium industry is second only to the United States according to public data, in fact, there is still a large gap in terms of market share and technical level. At present, domestic beryllium ore is mainly imported from abroad, giving priority to national defense and scientific and technological fields, while the civilian beryllium copper alloy is still far behind the United States and Japan. But in the long run, beryllium, as a metal with excellent performance, will penetrate from the existing aerospace and military industries to electronics and other emerging industries under the premise of meeting resource guarantees.


Post time: Apr-27-2022