Hi guys,
Two days ago I received part of the tungsten beads from the new Hanak range. The colours are beautiful, and the marbled effect looks more than attractive. I have already started tying a few flies with these beads. For the moment I have received only part of the models available from Hanak, but more will arrive soon.
I also have another piece of news — unfortunately not such a good one. The price of tungsten has increased sharply during the Chinese New Year period. The increases are around 70% compared to January of this year. Tungsten has become an increasingly restricted raw material worldwide. A large share of global production is used in the defence and military industries, and producers have tightened supply conditions over the past months.
For those who may not know much about tungsten, it is important to understand that around 80% of the world’s tungsten is produced and processed in China, mainly because the production process is energy-intensive and relatively polluting. Since energy in China is roughly 4–5 times cheaper than in Europe or the United States, it is easy to understand why China has come to dominate the production of this metal. And because tungsten has effectively become a strategic material almost overnight, China has started to restrict its exports, which is one of the main reasons why its price has increased so dramatically.
This will also be reflected in the price of artificial flies tied with tungsten.
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