Why Europe’s ITO Supply Chain Needs a Fundamental Rethink

Indium tin oxide is everywhere — and almost none of it is produced in Europe.

Every touchscreen, every solar panel, every smart glass surface contains a thin layer of ITO. It is the invisible conductor that makes interactive glass possible. And yet, over 80% of global ITO production is concentrated in China, South Korea, and Japan. For Europe’s rapidly growing solar and electronics industries, that geographic concentration is evolving from a commercial inconvenience into a genuine strategic liability.

The exposure became undeniable in 2021, when a global indium supply disruption caused ITO spot prices to spike by more than 40% within a single quarter. European manufacturers — dependent on imports at every stage — had no alternative. More recently, Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium have signalled that critical material supply is increasingly used as geopolitical leverage. Indium, classified as a critical raw material by the European Commission, is widely considered next.

The structural problem

Europe’s ITO dependency is not simply a matter of geology. Indium is primarily recovered as a by-product of zinc smelting, and Europe has sufficient zinc refining capacity to source meaningful quantities. The problem is process economics: conventional ITO manufacturing is expensive, ammonia-intensive, and produces significant hazardous waste. No European producer has been able to compete on cost with Asian producers at larger scale with lower labour and energy costs.

Why a process breakthrough changes the equation

The only durable solution is to make European ITO production economically viable. M4GT’s circular, ammonia-free process reduces production costs by more than 30% and carbon emissions by approximately 80% versus conventional methods. Validated at industrial scale with LT Metal — the world’s second-largest ITO producer — this is not a long-term aspiration. It is an operational possibility, available now.

Europe has a window to act before the supply chain disruption it fears becomes the supply chain crisis it cannot afford.