mineral · input
High-purity gallium (99.9999%+) used as precursor for MOCVD growth of GaN epitaxial layers on SiC. GaN chips are critical for 5G base stations, defense radar, missile guidance, and satellite communications. China controls approximately 94% of global gallium supply. In August 2023 China imposed export licensing requirements on gallium; exports dropped 97% within two months.
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Source countries
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Companies
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Goods affected
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Claims on record
What depends on it
1 essential American goods rely on gallium metal (high-purity, 6n+) somewhere upstream in their supply chain.
Who makes it
5 companies produce gallium metal (high-purity, 6n+).
State-owned Chinese aluminum company (subsidiary of Chinalco); China's largest alumina and primary aluminum producer; operates ~50 bauxite mines and 15+ alumina refineries across China and internationally; ~12% of global alumina production
China Hongqiao Group (Zouping, Shandong; HKEX: 1378; ~$30B+ revenue) is the world's largest aluminum producer by primary aluminum output and consequently one of the world's largest primary gallium producers. Gallium is a byproduct of aluminum production — bauxite contains trace gallium (~0.005% Ga by weight) that is recovered during the Bayer process conversion of bauxite to alumina. Hongqiao's massive Shandong Province aluminum smelting operations (producing ~6 million tonnes of primary aluminum annually) generate significant gallium as a byproduct. Hongqiao sells crude gallium to Chinese gallium refiners who purify it to semiconductor grade (6N+ purity). The company's gallium production is opaque — gallium is not separately reported in Hongqiao's financials — but Hongqiao's scale makes it one of the largest single crude gallium sources globally.
China's largest aluminum producer (private); sources bauxite from Guinea and Indonesia; operates integrated bauxite mines (Guinea operations via Winning Consortium) through parent Shandong Weiqiao; ~10% of global aluminum output
DOWA Holdings Co., Ltd. (Tokyo; TSE: 5714; ~¥700B revenue; formerly Dowa Mining Co.) is Japan's primary gallium producer — recovering gallium from compound semiconductor manufacturing scrap (GaAs, GaN, InGaP wafer cutting, polishing, and epi-layer waste) through specialized hydrometallurgical recycling. DOWA's gallium is secondary (recycled) rather than primary (from bauxite), making it a critical Western alternative to Chinese primary gallium production. DOWA's Akita Prefecture smelting/recycling complex handles precious metals (gold, silver) and specialty metals (gallium, indium, germanium) recovered from electronic scrap. DOWA supplies semiconductor-grade gallium to Japanese GaN device manufacturers (Sumitomo Electric, Mitsubishi Chemical) and exports to non-China GaN producers globally.
Qorvo Inc. (Greensboro NC; Nasdaq: QRVO; ~$3.8B revenue FY2024; formed 2015 by merger of RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor) is the world's second-largest GaAs/GaN RF semiconductor company. Qorvo operates in two major segments: Mobile Products (smartphone RF front-end modules — power amplifiers, filters, antenna tuners, duplexers for major Android OEMs and second-source iPhone supplier) and Infrastructure and Defense Products. The Defense & High Performance Solutions division is the most geopolitically significant: Qorvo makes GaN-on-SiC MMICs (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits) for US military radar (AESA arrays), electronic warfare, satellite communications, and directed energy weapons. Qorvo operates its own GaAs fabrication plant in Richardson TX and GaN compound semiconductor development lines in Research Triangle Park NC. Unlike Broadcom, Qorvo is a vertically integrated IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturer) for GaN defense products — it does not rely solely on external foundries for its most critical military chips.
