Hafnium Prices
The current price of Hafnium is $9,499.90 per kg.
Please note that the price provided above is the retail price for private investors and is aligned with industry retail pricing. For bulk hafnium purchases, whether investment or industry, please contact us directly for a quotation.
Table: Hafnium Historical Prices and Price Changes
| Date | Hafnium Price | Change % to Today | Annual Change % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 12 2025 | $9,499.90 / kg | ||
| Jan 1 2025 | $4,364.80 / kg | +117.65% | |
| Jan 1 2024 | $4,657.10 / kg | +103.99% | -7.21% |
| Jan 1 2023 | $4,560.00 / kg | +108.33% | +2.13% |
| Jan 1 2022 | $1,632.40 / kg | +481.96% | +179.34% |
| Jan 1 2021 | $1,404.30 / kg | +576.49% | +16.24% |
| Jan 1 2020 | $1,565.76 / kg | +506.73% | -10.31% |
| Jan 1 2019 | $1,856.40 / kg | +411.74% | -15.66% |
| Jan 1 2018 | $2,011.70 / kg | +372.23% | -7.71% |
Hafnium Historical Price Movement
At today’s price of $9,499.90 per kg, hafnium has changed +117.65% so far since the start of 2025. It lost 7.12% in 2024, but since the beginning of 2022 ( $1,632.40 per kg), it has gained a massive +481.96%.
Compared to its price of $1,404.30 per kg on Jan 1st 2021 hafnium has increased +576.49% today. If we go back further to Jan 1st 2018, when the cost of hafnium was $2,011.70 per kg, then this rare metal is up +372.23%.
To gain a better understanding of hafnium’s potential future market price, let’s explore its various applications and the countries who produce it (click here to jump to the forecast).
Hafnium is a chemical element with the symbol Hf and atomic number 72. Found in zirconium minerals, it’s a shiny, silvery, ductile metal that resists corrosion due to the formation of a tough, impenetrable oxide film on its surface.
Hafnium Uses
Hafnium is one of the most versatile strategic metals, valued across several high-tech and industrial applications:
Nuclear energy: Hafnium’s exceptional ability to absorb neutrons makes it an ideal material for control rods in nuclear reactors. As new reactor builds and life-extension programs progress worldwide, this remains a key area of demand.
Aerospace and defense: With a melting point above 2,100 °C and strong corrosion resistance, hafnium is an essential ingredient in high-temperature superalloys used for jet engine turbine blades, rocket nozzles, and spacecraft components.
Chemical industry: Hafnium compounds act as catalysts in various chemical processes, including ammonia synthesis and polymer production, where high heat stability and reactivity are required.
Semiconductors and microelectronics: Hafnium oxide (HfO₂) is used as a high-k dielectric in advanced microchips. It improves efficiency and heat tolerance in next-generation processors, a technology pioneered by Intel™ and now standard in modern semiconductor design.
Optics and manufacturing: Hafnium is used to produce anti-reflective coatings for precision optics such as camera lenses and eyeglasses. Thanks to its ability to emit electrons efficiently, it also serves as an electrode material in plasma cutting systems.
Where is Hafnium Produced?
Hafnium is not mined as a standalone metal. It is extracted during the processing of zirconium minerals, which are found in heavy mineral sands across several regions. Zircon-rich deposits occur in Australia, South Africa, Brazil, India, the United States, and parts of West Africa.
Today, the primary sources of hafnium come from countries with established zirconium refining industries:
France: one of the largest producers of high-purity hafnium through advanced zirconium–hafnium separation facilities.
Russia: significant capacity tied to its aerospace and nuclear sectors.
Australia & South Africa: major global suppliers of zirconium feedstock, providing much of the ore from which hafnium is eventually extracted.
United States: limited hafnium output; zirconium production exists, but most hafnium separation is performed overseas.
India and China: produce hafnium mainly for domestic use, especially for nuclear and aerospace applications. Export volumes are minimal.
Since 2022, Ukraine’s production has effectively halted, with raw materials believed to be diverted for processing through Russia, further tightening the European supply chain.
Because hafnium supply depends entirely on zirconium refining, its production is relatively small, inelastic, and highly concentrated, which is a major reason the market remains tight.
What Factors Determine the Price of Hafnium?
Hafnium’s price is driven by a simple combination of inelastic supply and steady, high-tech demand.
Demand Factors
Hafnium is essential in three major sectors: aerospace & defense, nuclear energy, and semiconductors. These all tend to grow over the long term, and when activity in any of these industries accelerates, even slightly, hafnium demand can tighten quickly because the overall market is so small.
Supply Factors
On the supply side, the constraints are structural:
By-product output: Hafnium is only produced during zirconium refining, so supply cannot increase independently.
Technically complex separation: Only a limited number of facilities worldwide can refine hafnium to high purity.
Concentrated production: Global hafnium output comes from a small group of producers, leaving the market vulnerable to disruptions or geopolitical events.
The Bottom Line
Because supply is fixed and demand comes from sectors with long-term growth, hafnium prices can move sharply in response to relatively small changes in industrial consumption. This combination of scarcity and strategic relevance is what makes the hafnium market so unique.
A Note on China
Unlike many other strategic metals and rare earths, China is not a major supplier of hafnium to global markets. Most of its production is reserved for domestic aerospace and nuclear demand, and export volumes are negligible. This makes the hafnium supply chain unusually dependent on Western and Russian refining capacity, a rare exception among critical materials.
Hafnium Price Forecast
Hafnium continues to behave like what it is: a tiny, strategically important market riding three big secular waves—advanced aerospace alloys, nuclear build-outs, and chipmaking materials. After a soft patch in 2024, prices have resumed their climb in 2025 (up +8% as of September), underscoring just how little slack exists in supply.
Structurally, nothing fundamental has changed on the supply side: hafnium is not mined for its own sake; it’s largely a by-product of zirconium processing, which keeps output small and inflexible. For every 50 tonnes of zirconium, only about 1 tonne of hafnium is produced—scarcity by design. The USGS “Zirconium and Hafnium (MCS 2025)” sheet makes this linkage explicit and highlights the concentrated value chain that leaves the market prone to shocks.
On the demand side, the 2025 nuclear narrative has real teeth. Fuel-cycle activity is brisk, with fresh supply agreements and fabrication investments pointing to sustained throughput across the sector—indirect but meaningful pull for hafnium-bearing control components in certain reactor designs. At the same time, aerospace and defense superalloys continue to benefit from rising aircraft build rates and rearmament programs. Market analysts, such as Fortune Business Insights, see hafnium demand growing at a mid- to high-single-digit 2030s—a clear sign that even modest demand growth is enough to stress a constrained supply base.
Price-wise, remember where we came from: we saw a sharp step-change in 2022–2023, with 99% hafnium peaking at $5,488.90/kg in October 2023. That surge reflected resurging demand colliding with the market’s inherently constrained supply base. While prices have eased somewhat since, the rebound in 2025 shows just how quickly the market can tighten again.
Could new supply ease the squeeze? Possibly—but timelines are long. Projects like ASM’s Dubbo development in Australia continue to position for multi-metal output that includes hafnium alongside zirconium and rare earths. Until such flows materialize at scale, the market remains governed by by-product math and processing bottlenecks—supportive for prices on any incremental demand surprise.
Bottom line: into 2026, we expect a tight-but-balanced market with a bullish skew: modest growth in nuclear and aerospace demand against inelastic supply should keep average prices well elevated versus the pre-2022 era. Upside risks include faster nuclear deployments or aero build-rate beats; downside risks include macro slowdowns, substitution in certain control-rod applications, or a faster-than-expected ramp from by-product sources.
How to Buy Hafnium Bars
If you Google search “buy hafnium bars”, you’ll find several suppliers and online marketplaces like Alibaba, eBay, and Amazon selling this metal. It’s worth noting though that unless you purchase from a reputable dealer, there’s no guarantee of the purity and no possibility of liquidation to anyone other than hobbyists.
Corporate buyers like Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, and Intel only use licensed metal dealers to buy the industry-grade hafnium they need in their production process. Experienced metals dealers, such as ourselves, act as key intermediaries between the industry users and the producers of strategic raw materials.
Any discerning investor who wants to benefit from future hafnium price increases by purchasing and owning this metal can do this through us, the only globally licensed industry supplier offering this option to private investors. We sell industry-grade hafnium at a minimum of 99.9% purity and less than 0.2% zirconium: Hf+Zr min. 99,9% (Zr < 0,2%). Please note that this is the purest form of hafnium that is preferred by the aerospace industry.
You can also trade hafnium futures contracts in the Shanghai Metal Market (SMM).
How to Sell Hafnium
If you own some hafnium bars, you can sell them online to other hobbyists at sites like eBay, Amazon Marketplace, or Alibaba. However, you won’t get market rates because industry buyers like Safran, Intel, General Electric, and Rolls-Royce only buy pure industrial-grade hafnium from established industry suppliers.
They will only transact with a seller that can provide documentary evidence of the entire chain of custody, purity reports, and proper storage facilities. Because we’re a reputable industry supplier, we guarantee the safe and fast liquidation of our investors’ hafnium and other strategic metals to the market.
All prices on this page last updated Dec 12 2025.