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Ruthenium price skyrockets amid surging demand for electronics and chips · 5 sources tracked

By PulseAugur Editorial · [5 sources] ·

Ruthenium prices have surged from approximately $560 per ounce in early 2025 to nearly $1,950 by September 2026, driven by growing demand in electronics and hard drives. While chemical industry demand is currently down due to overcapacity in China, it is expected to recover. The metal's unique properties, such as high melting point and low resistivity at narrow widths, make it a strong candidate to replace copper in advanced chip wiring beyond the 2nm node, with applications in through-silicon vias and buried power rails already demonstrated. Despite price increases, miners have limited capacity to boost production, as ruthenium is primarily a byproduct of platinum mining in South Africa, with its revenue contribution being relatively small. AI

IMPACT Ruthenium's increasing importance in advanced chip manufacturing could accelerate the development of next-generation semiconductors.

RANK_REASON The cluster details a significant price surge and supply/demand dynamics for a critical industrial material with emerging high-tech applications.

Read on X — SemiAnalysis →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 5 sources. How we write summaries →

Ruthenium price skyrockets amid surging demand for electronics and chips · 5 sources tracked

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The cluster details a significant price surge and supply/demand dynamics for a critical industrial material with emerging high-tech applications.
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product, infra
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COVERAGE [5]

  1. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    At $1,950 an ounce, annual primary supply is worth about $2 billion. Miners have little scope to increase production as demand grows. Add a chemical recovery to

    At $1,950 an ounce, annual primary supply is worth about $2 billion. Miners have little scope to increase production as demand grows. Add a chemical recovery to the long-term growth in electronics, and the shortage gets harder to fill. Ruthenium to the moon! (5/5)

  2. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    Demand already exceeds supply, even with chemicals, its largest end market, in a downturn. Johnson Matthey expects demand of 1.193 million ounces against primar

    Demand already exceeds supply, even with chemicals, its largest end market, in a downturn. Johnson Matthey expects demand of 1.193 million ounces against primary supply of 977,000 ounces in 2026. Chemical demand is forecast to fall 16%, largely because Chinese nylon producers htt…

  3. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    Higher prices give miners little reason to produce more ruthenium. Most comes from South African platinum mines, where it is recovered as a byproduct. It accoun

    Higher prices give miners little reason to produce more ruthenium. Most comes from South African platinum mines, where it is recovered as a byproduct. It accounted for just 3.3% of Sibanye-Stillwater's platinum group metal revenue in 2025, so mining plans still depend chiefly on

  4. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    As chip wiring shrinks, the layers that stop copper from spreading into surrounding materials take up more of the wire. Ruthenium can work without copper's diff

    As chip wiring shrinks, the layers that stop copper from spreading into surrounding materials take up more of the wire. Ruthenium can work without copper's diffusion-barrier stack, and its resistivity rises less sharply as the wire narrows. At widths around 17nm and below, it can

  5. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    Ruthenium has risen from about $560 an ounce in early 2025 to dealer quotes near $1,950 this September. It is a key material in hard drives, with new use cases

    Ruthenium has risen from about $560 an ounce in early 2025 to dealer quotes near $1,950 this September. It is a key material in hard drives, with new use cases also emerging. (1/5)🧵 https://t.co/WvdZq5Y1ov

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