Plansee

The Plansee Group is a family-owned powder-metallurgy group from Tyrol. It is the largest producer of tungsten products outside China and a leading global specialist in molybdenum. It is vertically integrated from ore concentrate and scrap recycling through powders and semi-finished products to engineered components and cemented-carbide tools. It has two business areas. Plansee High Performance Materials makes molybdenum and tungsten products, including sputtering targets, ion-implantation components and thermal-management parts for semiconductor and display fabs. CERATIZIT makes carbide cutting tools and wear parts. Global Tungsten & Powders in the United States handles raw-material conversion and recycling. The group also holds strategic minority stakes in Molymet (31%), the world's largest molybdenum processor, and Almonty Industries (10%), which runs the Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea. In FY2025/26 it shipped about 14,300 tonnes of tungsten products, roughly 12% of global supply, and 92% of its tungsten feedstock came from recycling. In a market where China has cut exports and tungsten prices have risen as much as tenfold, this supply security is its main competitive advantage.

What the company does. Plansee turns two refractory metals, molybdenum and tungsten, into high-performance materials, components and tools. These metals have very high melting points, high density, low vapour pressure, high strength at high temperature, high thermal conductivity and good corrosion resistance. Plansee shapes them almost entirely by powder metallurgy: it presses and sinters metal powders and then forms, machines, coats and joins them. The group's own short description is two business areas under one parent. Plansee High Performance Materials makes metallic products from molybdenum and tungsten. CERATIZIT makes cemented-carbide (tungsten carbide) cutting tools and wear-protection solutions. Raw-material security comes from recycling and long-term partnerships with mining companies.

Business model. The revenue model is almost entirely product sales. Most products are made to order, engineered to customer specifications and supplied as recurring consumables or spare parts. The exceptions are the standard tool catalogue and online shop sales at CERATIZIT, and standard semi-finished products at Plansee. There is no material subscription or licensing revenue. Recurring wear-part economics drive much of the semiconductor-related business. Sputtering targets are consumed in PVD tools and replaced on a regular cycle. Ion-implanter source parts (filaments, arc chambers, liners, extraction electrodes) wear out and are bought as spare parts. Plansee positions itself here as the world's largest second-source supplier, offering more than 2,000 implanter components. In cutting tools, inserts and solid-carbide drills and mills are consumables bought in proportion to machining activity.

Value-chain position. Few refractory-metals companies cover as much of the value chain:

Mining (upstream): Plansee Group activity: No owned mines. 10% stake in Almonty Industries and a 21-year offtake for most of the Sangdong mine's tungsten concentrate

Concentrate and scrap processing: Plansee Group activity: GTP (Towanda, USA) converts concentrate and scrap to APT and tungsten oxide. Stadler Metalle (Germany) collects and trades tungsten scrap

Molybdenum processing: Plansee Group activity: 31% stake in Molymet (Chile), the world's largest molybdenum processor

Powders: Plansee Group activity: Tungsten, molybdenum and tungsten carbide powders (GTP, Plansee, CERATIZIT)

Semi-finished products: Plansee Group activity: Sheets, rods, wires, tubes and blanks (Plansee HPM)

Components: Plansee Group activity: Sputtering targets, implanter parts, X-ray anodes, heat sinks, furnace hot zones, tungsten heavy alloys (Plansee HPM)

Tools: Plansee Group activity: Carbide inserts, solid-carbide tools, wear parts (CERATIZIT, KOMET, WNT and others)

Recycling (closed loop): Plansee Group activity: Take-back of used tools and components, with returned material fed back to GTP and Plansee

Customer types and end markets. Customers are OEMs and industrial manufacturers. They include semiconductor fabs and semiconductor-equipment makers, flat-panel display makers, medical-imaging OEMs (CT and X-ray), aerospace engine makers and their suppliers, defence contractors, the automotive industry and its suppliers, general machine-building, energy-technology and lighting companies, and the construction and mining-tool industries. The group lists its main sales markets as consumer electronics, automotive, mechanical engineering, construction, energy engineering, medical technology, semiconductors and aerospace. For FY2025/26 the group reported that mechanical engineering rose to about 25% of sales and aerospace to about 13%.

Independent characterisation. Plansee is best understood as a vertically integrated tungsten platform with a molybdenum franchise attached. Two things set it apart from other European specialty-materials groups. The first is raw-material control: at 92% recycled feedstock, its tungsten recycling rate is far above the industry norm (about 70% of tungsten used worldwide is never recycled). The second is breadth from powder to finished tool. Semiconductors make up a smaller share of group revenue than at pure-play target makers such as JX Advanced Metals or Konfoong. The group has said the semiconductor industry has become its biggest single success driver, and management expects semiconductors to be the strongest-growing end market in FY2026/27. In sputtering targets, Plansee is strongest in molybdenum, tungsten and tungsten-titanium (WTi) targets for semiconductor metallisation and barrier layers. It is also strong in very large planar and rotary molybdenum-alloy targets for TFT-LCD and OLED displays. It is not a major player in copper, tantalum, titanium, aluminium or cobalt targets for advanced logic interconnects. JX Advanced Metals, Honeywell, Linde/Praxair, Konfoong and Tosoh dominate those.

Stated strategy. The group says it aims to be the world's leading and preferred supplier of molybdenum and tungsten materials along the whole value chain. Its recurring strategic themes are:

1. Raw-material security and vertical integration. Management calls consistent vertical integration along the value chain a decisive competitive advantage in volatile markets. Tungsten supply rests on three pillars: systematic collection and sorting of scrap, in-house recycling technology, and long-term offtake agreements with mines. The group began this programme about 20 years ago, after recognising early how dependent it was on Chinese supply.

2. Innovation and new products. The long-run target for new products (five years old or younger) is a share of at least 30% of core-business revenue, with an interim aspiration of about 40%. The share was 41% in FY2022/23, 38% in FY2023/24 and 30% in FY2024/25 and FY2025/26.

3. Local production in every major region. The group aims to serve customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia from local plants, with investment shifting to India and the USA.

4. Productivity, automation and digitalisation. Priorities include automating tungsten and hard-metal production in Europe, standardising processes, and developing IT, digital quoting and procurement.

5. Sustainability. Priorities are decarbonisation, renewable electricity, higher circularity and an industry-standard method for product carbon footprints.

6. Attractive employer. The group trains its own apprentices (more than 2,200 trained in Reutte since its founding) and fills about 85% of senior-management positions internally.

Initiatives in the last 24 months

Tungsten oxide capacity expansion and US stockpile JV: Timing: Reported June 2026; Description: JV with Manhattan Five Partners to build a recycled tungsten oxide stockpile in the USA. Towanda oxide capacity to expand to about 12,000 t/yr, with first deliveries planned for 2026

Sangdong offtake extension: Timing: July 2026; Description: Term extended by six years to 21 years, with larger volumes and new pricing provisions on top of the existing floor price. Supplies Europe and the USA into the 2040s

Molymet stake increase: Timing: April 2026; Description: Stake raised to 31%, making Plansee the largest single shareholder

Capacity build-out along the tungsten chain: Timing: FY2025/26; Description: Capex of EUR 145 million, largely for concentrate-to-oxide, powders, heavy metals and finished products such as wire and sheet

Scrap business models: Timing: FY2024/25 onward; Description: New models for buying and taking back tungsten scrap tested and launched

Policy advocacy: Timing: April 2026 onward; Description: The CEO calls for export restrictions on tungsten scrap from the US and Europe so that scrap is reprocessed in regional value chains

Green hydrogen: Timing: FY2025/26; Description: Electrolyzer in Reutte makes hydrogen from renewable power, cutting up to 4,000 t CO2e a year

Furnace decarbonisation and automation (Austria): Timing: FY2024/25; Description: Projects to decarbonise industrial furnaces and automate tungsten and hard-metal production

Product carbon footprint standard: Timing: FY2024/25; Description: Method developed with the VDMA, intended to become an international industry standard

Digital procurement: Timing: Oct 2024; Description: CERATIZIT minority stake in Spanflug Technologies

Footprint restructuring: Timing: March 2025; Description: CERATIZIT closure of Besigheim and Empfingen

India and USA investment: Timing: FY2025/26 onward; Description: Further investment planned so customers in all regions can be served from local production

Medium-term guidance. The group does not publish quantitative financial targets. For FY2026/27 management expects flat automotive demand, moderate growth in medical technology, mechanical engineering and construction, stronger growth in semiconductors, and aerospace and defence stabilising at a solid level. Priorities are pricing measures and productivity gains to improve profitability, alongside digitalisation, automation, process standardisation and IT development. Management expects the environment to stay difficult, citing geopolitical tension, deglobalisation and volatile raw-material prices.

Plansee HPM: semiconductor and electronics products

Sputtering targets for semiconductors. Plansee develops and engineers high-purity molybdenum, tungsten and tungsten-titanium (WTi) alloy targets to meet semiconductor requirements for purity, process stability and performance. The company presented this work at the SVC TechCon on 29 April 2026. Semiconductor targets are made in diameters up to 450 mm, covering 200 mm and 300 mm wafer tools and the 450 mm format. Applications include tungsten and tungsten-silicide contacts and interconnect layers, WTi diffusion barriers and adhesion layers in power devices and back-end-of-line, and molybdenum layers in emerging device architectures. Plansee says it is the only sputtering-target manufacturer that performs every production step in-house, from raw-material processing through bonding. Its targets have close to 100% density thanks to its forming processes, which improves conductivity and sputtering rates and reduces particles caused by arcing.

Sputtering targets for displays and touch. Plansee makes planar single-piece targets in series production up to 1.8 × 2.3 m, multi-part planar sets with individual parts up to 3.5 m long, and rotary (tubular) targets up to 4,000 mm long. Display material grades include:

Arc cathodes. Metallic and ceramic cathodes (Mo, W, Cr, Ti, Al and alloys) for PVD hard coatings on tools and components, sold mainly to coating-equipment OEMs and job coaters.

Photovoltaic targets. MoNa targets, introduced for CIGS thin-film solar back contacts, give higher cell efficiency through controlled sodium doping. Plansee also offers CuGa, CuIn and CuInGa targets for CIGS absorber layers.

Target bonding services. Plansee Korea (Hwaseong) bonds, machines and packages ready-to-use targets for customers and other target makers in Asia. It specialises in indium bonding of rotary and planar targets up to Gen-10 display size, with packaging done under cleanroom conditions.

Ion-implantation components. Plansee offers more than 2,000 components for ion implanter systems, from filaments to complete ion sources. It describes itself as the world's largest second-source supplier in this field. Materials include molybdenum, tungsten, graphite and ceramics. Typical parts are arc chambers, liners, repellers, cathodes, filaments, extraction and suppression electrodes, and beamline components. Plansee Korea and other machining centres make implanter spare parts for Asian fabs. The group's FY2024/25 investment programme included new machinery in China and India for semiconductor products.

Semiconductor base plates and thermal-management materials. Molybdenum, copper-molybdenum and tungsten-copper base plates and heat spreaders for power semiconductors (IGBT and SiC modules), RF devices and laser diodes. Their thermal expansion matches the semiconductor material, and they conduct heat well. Plansee coats many of these parts in-house using PVD, CVD, atmospheric plasma spraying and vacuum plasma spraying.

Process components for crystal growth and epitaxy. Molybdenum and tungsten crucibles, heat shields and hot-zone parts for sapphire and other crystal-growth furnaces, and wafer carriers for MOCVD equipment used in LED production.

Plansee HPM: other industrial product lines

CERATIZIT: carbide tools and wear parts

Pricing model. List and catalogue pricing applies to standard CERATIZIT tools and to Plansee's online-shop products. Engineered semiconductor and display products are quoted per project and sold under supply agreements. Since the 2025 tungsten price spike the group has applied price increases and pricing measures. It does not disclose its pricing formulas, including how far raw-material surcharges are passed through.

Global Tungsten & Powders

GTP in Towanda converts tungsten concentrates and scrap into ammonium paratungstate (APT), tungsten oxides and tungsten metal and carbide powders, and also makes molybdenum powders. It is the group's main US recycling hub. It is the contractual offtaker of the Sangdong mine's concentrate. It is also the planned production site for an expansion of tungsten oxide capacity to about 12,000 tonnes per year, linked to a US stockpiling joint venture with Manhattan Five Partners.