Gallium

What Is Gallium

Gallium is element 31 — a soft, silvery metal with one of the most unusual physical properties in the periodic table: it melts at 29.8 degrees Celsius, just above room temperature, which means it liquefies in your hand. That property is a curiosity. What matters industrially is what gallium does when combined with other elements: gallium arsenide (GaAs — a semiconductor compound that converts electricity to light and light to electricity more efficiently than silicon) and gallium nitride (GaN — a wide-bandgap semiconductor that operates at higher voltages, frequencies, and temperatures than silicon can sustain) are two of the most important compound semiconductors in modern electronics.

Gallium arsenide is used in the power amplifiers inside every smartphone that transmits and receives radio frequency signals — 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. It is used in satellite communications, radar systems, and the solar cells on spacecraft. Gallium nitride is used in the fast chargers that have replaced the bulky adapters of the previous generation, in the power electronics managing energy flow in electric vehicles, in the radar systems on advanced fighter aircraft, and increasingly in the base station infrastructure of 5G networks. Both materials outperform silicon in the specific applications where they are used — and for most of those applications, no equivalent-performance substitute exists.

Gallium is not mined directly. It exists in trace quantities in bauxite (the ore from which aluminium is refined) and in zinc ores, and is recovered as a byproduct of aluminium and zinc smelting. The same structural constraint that defines indium and tellurium applies: gallium supply is permanently coupled to aluminium production, which is driven by aluminium demand, not gallium demand. You cannot build a gallium mine.

Where It Comes From

China accounts for approximately 80–85% of global primary gallium production — a share built on dominant aluminium smelting capacity and deliberate industrial policy. Chinese producers recover gallium from the Bayer process liquor (the caustic soda solution used to extract alumina from bauxite during aluminium refining) at scale that no other country matches. Outside China, meaningful gallium production occurs in Russia, South Korea, Japan, and Germany — all as byproducts of existing smelting operations, none at a scale that could substitute for Chinese supply.

China introduced export licensing requirements for gallium in August 2023, alongside germanium, as part of a coordinated critical minerals export control policy. The controls required government approval for every gallium shipment, creating immediate friction, slowing export flows, and driving prices sharply higher. The December 2024 escalation extended the controls to an outright ban on gallium exports to the United States specifically, alongside germanium, antimony, and other materials — coordinated retaliation for US semiconductor export restrictions.

On November 9, 2025, China suspended the US-specific ban through November 27, 2026, as part of broader US-China trade negotiations. The suspension is not a lifting of controls. Export licensing requirements remain in place. The 15-firm export whitelist that constrains who can export remains operative. The suspension means US buyers can receive licensed Chinese gallium shipments again — until the suspension expires.

Why It Matters Right Now

The 5G infrastructure buildout is the primary near-term demand driver. Base stations for 5G networks use gallium nitride power amplifiers in quantities significantly larger than their 4G predecessors — GaN's ability to operate at higher frequencies and power levels is what enables the performance characteristics that differentiate 5G from 4G. Every new 5G base station installed globally — and installations are accelerating across Asia, Europe, and North America — adds incremental gallium demand.

Defense applications are direct and growing. The F-35 fighter jet uses gallium arsenide and gallium nitride components throughout its avionics, radar, and electronic warfare systems. The US military's transition to GaN-based active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar — a phased array system that electronically steers its beam rather than mechanically moving an antenna — is a significant and sustained demand driver. Gallium nitride is specifically listed as a critical material for next-generation defense electronics by the US Department of Defense.

The electric vehicle power electronics transition adds a third demand stream. Silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride are the two competing wide-bandgap semiconductor materials for EV inverters and onboard chargers. GaN's advantages in switching speed and efficiency at certain power levels are driving adoption in onboard charging systems, where the fast-charge capability that consumers want requires exactly the high-frequency switching that GaN enables.

The Suspension Is Not a Solution

Here is the contradiction the gallium market is currently presenting: prices have corrected from their post-ban peaks, supply is described as adequate during the suspension window, and the immediate crisis atmosphere of late 2024 has dissipated. That sounds like resolution. It is not.

The suspension expires November 27, 2026. On that date, absent a new agreement or extension, the export ban structure returns. The structural conditions that made the ban effective have not changed: China still produces 80–85% of global gallium. Western gallium production capacity — meaningful in Germany, South Korea, Japan, and Russia — has not expanded to replace Chinese supply at defense-required volumes. The Western semiconductor industry that uses gallium arsenide and gallium nitride remains structurally dependent on Chinese supply chains for the primary material.

The policy response in the United States and Europe has included investment in domestic gallium recovery capacity — several aluminium smelters in North America and Europe have announced or initiated gallium recovery programs. But recovery from smelting byproduct is constrained by the same structural ceiling as indium and tellurium: it grows only as fast as aluminium production grows, and aluminium production is not growing fast enough to close the gap.

The suspension bought time. The question the market is currently not pricing is what happens on November 28, 2026, if the trade negotiations that produced the suspension have not produced a more durable resolution.

What the Price Has Done

Before August 2023, gallium traded in the $220–280 per kilogram range on the Chinese domestic market — stable, reflecting adequate supply and growing but manageable demand from the semiconductor industry. The export licensing announcement in August 2023 was the structural inflection. Prices surged immediately as Western buyers priced in access risk and began strategic restocking. By late 2023, domestic Chinese gallium had reached approximately $400 per kilogram.

The December 2024 outright ban on US exports drove a second surge. Prices peaked in early 2025 before the suspension announcement began moderating expectations. The November 2025 suspension brought prices back from their peaks as licensed material began flowing again and the acute shortage atmosphere dissipated.

May 2026: SMM domestic China gallium metal 99.99% sits at approximately $267.56 per kilogram — below the 2023–2024 peak levels but above the pre-control baseline of $220–280 per kilogram. The suspension has partially normalised the market. The access premium above domestic Chinese prices that Western industrial buyers pay reflects the export licence friction that persists even during the suspension window.