The development history of tantalum metal

The development history of tantalum metal

Although tantalum was discovered in the early 19th century, metal tantalum was not

produced until 1903, and industrial production of tantalum began in 1922. Therefore,

the development of the world’s tantalum industry began in the 1920s, and China’s

tantalum industry began in 1956.

The United States is the first country in the world to start producing tantalum. In 1922,

it began to produce metal tantalum on an industrial scale. Japan and other capitalist

countries all started to develop the tantalum industry in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

After decades of development, the production of tantalum industry in the world has

reached a very high level. Since the 1990s, relatively large-scale manufacturers of

tantalum products include American Cabot Group (American Cabot, Japanese Showa

Cabot), German HCST Group (German HCST, American NRC, Japanese V-Tech, and

Thai TTA) and Chinese Ningxia Dongfang Tantalum Co., Ltd. The three major groups

of China Industrial Co., Ltd., the production of tantalum products by these three

groups accounts for more than 80% of the world’s total. The products, technology and

equipment of the foreign tantalum industry are generally very high, meeting the needs

of the rapid development of science and technology in the world.

China’s tantalum industry began in the 1960s. Compared with developed countries,

China’s initial tantalum smelting, processing and production scale, technical level,

product grade and quality are far behind. Since the 1990s, especially since 1995,

China’s tantalum production and application has shown a trend of rapid development.

Today, China’s tantalum industry has realized the transformation from “small to large,

from military to civilian, and from inside to outside”, forming the world’s only The

industrial system from mining, smelting, processing to application, high, medium and

low-end products have entered the international market in an all-round way. China has

become the third largest country in the world in tantalum smelting and processing, and

has entered the ranks of the world’s largest tantalum industry countries.