MSR Sells 4.99% Stake to Elmet for $124.75M, Signs $1.5B Tungsten Supply Deal

Overview

Masan High-Tech Materials (UPCoM: MSR) completed a 4.99% stake sale to US tungsten materials firm The Elmet Group (Nasdaq: ELMT) for $124.75 million on 1 October 2026, alongside an eight-year supply and processing agreement worth roughly $1.5 billion at signing-date prices. The transaction follows a 9 July 2026 long-term processing agreement with Korea’s GB Innovation, which will ship Korean tungsten concentrate to MSR’s Thái Nguyên plant for conversion into ammonium paratungstate (APT) and tungsten oxide.

Key Facts

• Elmet Group (Nasdaq: ELMT) completed the purchase of a 4.99% MSR stake for $124.75 million on 1 October 2026.
• The Elmet supply and processing agreement covers about 1,250 tonnes of WO3-equivalent product per year for more than eight years, valued at roughly $1.5 billion in gross revenue at signing-date prices.
• MSR signed a long-term processing agreement with Korea’s GB Innovation on 9 July 2026; Korean tungsten concentrate will be refined at Thái Nguyên into APT and tungsten oxide.
• Elmet has been an MSR customer for more than 12 years, per the article.
• USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 puts 2025 global mined tungsten output at 85,000 tonnes (+3.7% year on year), with China at about 67,000 tonnes (nearly 79%) and Vietnam second at about 3,000 tonnes (3.5%).
• China’s Ministry of Commerce and Customs Administration Notice 10/2025, dated 4 February 2025, introduced export licensing for certain tungsten products including APT.
• Fastmarkets data cited by MSR shows average APT prices rising from $358/mtu in Q1 2025 to $3,129/mtu in Q3 2026, nearly nine times higher.

What Happened

The article, citing company disclosures, states that MSR signed a long-term agreement with GB Innovation, a Korean mining company, on 9 July 2026. Under the deal, tungsten concentrate mined in Korea is shipped to Thái Nguyên province for processing into APT and tungsten oxide, intermediate products used by the tungsten industry. MSR said Korea holds tungsten resources but lacks large-scale processing capacity, leaving the Vietnamese plant to handle that stage.

Nearly three months later, on 1 October 2026, The Elmet Group, a US tungsten materials company and an MSR customer for over 12 years, completed the purchase of a 4.99% stake for $124.75 million. The two sides simultaneously signed a supply and processing agreement covering roughly 1,250 tonnes of WO3-equivalent product per year over more than eight years, estimated to generate about $1.5 billion in gross revenue at prices prevailing at signing. One partner sends raw material to Vietnam for processing; the other uses MSR’s refined output to make materials and precision components for aerospace, defence and semiconductors.

Market Context

MSR trades on UPCoM and closed at VND 68,400 on 28 October 2026. The stock sits in the basic resources sector, where Vietnamese tungsten exposure is scarce and the listed universe is thin. The article frames the current APT price rally as a test of whether MSR can convert its refining capacity into durable growth after more than a decade of investment in processing. The broader market backdrop is one of supply concentration: China accounts for nearly 79% of mined tungsten output and has moved from net exporter to net importer of raw material, with no APT export lots recorded in the first two months of 2026 and tungsten oxide exports down 87.9% year on year.

Strategic Significance

The two agreements reposition MSR from a concentrate exporter into a mid-stream refiner embedded in Western and allied supply chains. Elmet’s equity stake aligns a long-standing customer with MSR’s processing capacity, while the eight-year offtake gives revenue visibility that a spot-exposed miner would not have. GB Innovation adds a second feedstock source outside China, reducing dependence on a single jurisdiction for input material. With APT prices up nearly ninefold from Q1 2025 to Q3 2026 and China restricting exports, MSR’s Thái Nguyên plant becomes one of the few non-Chinese refining nodes at scale, a position that matters for aerospace, defence and semiconductor buyers seeking supply-chain diversification.

What to Watch

• MSR disclosures on the phasing of the Elmet supply agreement, including annual volume ramps and pricing mechanisms.
• APT price prints from Fastmarkets in Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, to test whether the rally holds.
• Any change in China’s export licensing regime under Notice 10/2025, or further tightening.
• GB Innovation shipment volumes into Thái Nguyên and MSR plant utilisation disclosures.
• Elmet Group filings with US regulators on the strategic rationale and any further stake increases.