Rising Price of Tungsten Due to Chinese Export Controls Leads to a Windfall for the Kim Regime in North Korea
The money the Kim regime has made selling tungsten has made up 1/3 of its exports to China this year:
North Korea earned a windfall from soaring tungsten prices, largely thanks to China’s tighter export controls on the mineral in the first half of this year, but the gains were too small to offset a sharp slide in its currency and rising inflation, a report showed.
Between January and May, North Korea’s exports to China rose to $287 million, up 68 percent on-year from about $171 million. Tungsten ore accounted for $88 million, or nearly one-third of the total, according to a report released last week by the US-based monitoring website 38 North.
According to the report, North Korea’s tungsten exports by value showed an almost tenfold jump year-on-year. The mineral also overtook wigs and false hair to become the country’s largest export to China.
The increase, however, was driven mostly by higher prices rather than greater shipments.
Tungsten export volume rose only about 15 percent, while the average unit value surged from around $8 to nearly $70 per kilogram. The report estimated that higher prices accounted for about 98 percent of the increase in export earnings.
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