Indium Price
Semiconductor Metal
Export Licence
Critical for ITO coatings in displays and touchscreens.
Last update: 2026-04-04
5 records
5 records
Retail Reference
$260/kg
Metal 99.99% (4N)
· 1 kg
Edgetech Industries
· CN
· 2026-03-15
Bulk Benchmark
—
No commodity benchmark available
Export Licence
Chinese export licence required for Indium in all controlled forms.
Regulatory Tracker →
Applications
| Application | Role | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| ITO transparent conductors | Indium tin oxide sputter targets for displays and touchscreens | ~70% of In demand. Coating on every smartphone, tablet, monitor, and TV. Substitution by silver nanowire/PEDOT:PSS slow. |
| CIGS thin-film solar | Cu(In,Ga)Se2 photovoltaic absorber | Flexible thin-film solar cells; smaller volume than crystalline-Si but indium-intensive per watt |
| InP & InGaAs semiconductors | III–V wafers for laser diodes, photodetectors, RF | 1310/1550 nm telecom laser diodes, photodetectors, mmWave RF transistors |
| Low-melting alloys | In–Sn, In–Bi, Field’s metal, fusible alloys | Cryogenic seals, thermal interface materials, soft solders for compound semiconductors |
| Nuclear control rods | Ag–In–Cd alloy in PWR control rods | Standard PWR neutron absorber rod composition |
Market & Supply
Global refined production
~900 t/year [4]
China refining share
~58%
Other major refiners
South Korea, Japan, Canada, Belgium
Source
Zn smelter residue (co-product)
Export control
MOFCOM No. 10/2025 [2]
In metal benchmark
$280–$340/kg (FOB China)
Retail metal (ingot)
$400–$1,200/kg
ITO target premium
2–3× metal price
Verified Offers
Indium is one of the more liquid retail metals tracked here — ingots and shot are common on Alibaba and eBay at sub-kilogram scale. The auto-rendered table shows tracked listings.
| Date | Form | Purity | USD/kg | Seller | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-15 | Metal | 99.99% (4N) | $320 | Stanford Advanced Materials | US |
| 2026-03-15 | Metal | 99.99% (4N) | $260 | Edgetech Industries | CN |
| 2026-03-15 | Metal | 99.99% (4N) | $280 | ALB Materials | CN |
| 2026-03-15 | Metal | 99.99% (4N) | $390 | American Elements | US |
| 2026-04-04 | Metal | 99.995% | $1470 | Luciteria | US |
Important Notes
Licence regime active
MOFCOM No. 10/2025 [2] requires licences for In metal, ITO sputter targets, and InP/InAs wafers. Display-industry ITO target supply chains qualify multiple sources but the dominant target makers are concentrated in China, South Korea, and Japan.
Co-production with zinc
Indium is recovered from Zn smelter residues. Production cannot scale independently of zinc — In supply is structurally bounded by global Zn refining throughput (~13 Mt/year) and the In content of feed concentrates.
Display industry concentration
ITO is the dominant transparent conductor for LCD and OLED panels. Substitution by silver nanowires (e.g. Cambrios) or PEDOT:PSS exists for flexible/wearable displays but does not match ITO’s sheet resistance/transparency tradeoff for mainstream displays.
Physical Properties [1]
Z: 49 · Ar: 114.818 u · ρ: 7.31 g/cm3 · Tm: 156.6 °C · Tb: 2,072 °CCrystal: tetragonal · Config: [Kr]4d105s25p1 · Ox. states: +1, +3
References
- Wolfram Alpha, “Indium element.” wolframalpha.com.
- MOFCOM Announcement No. 10 of 2025, “Export Control of Tungsten, Tellurium, Bismuth, Molybdenum and Indium Related Items,” effective 4 February 2025.
- MOFCOM Announcements No. 70 and 72 of 2025 (suspension orders), 7–9 November 2025.
- United States Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Indium, January 2025.