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2 critical materials scored · binding chokepoint: Tungsten (🇨🇳 CN 90% of refining) · 29 restrictive government measures on record
The binding exposure is Tungsten — 🇨🇳 CN controls 90% of global refining. On this company's production footprint that scores 88/100 (adversarial chokepoint; global 76). The register holds 29 restrictive government measures touching this company's materials — each traced to its primary source below.
Peer rank · Tungsten B. Braun Melsungen AG is the 28th-most-exposed of the 448 named companies we track on 🇨🇳 CN's Tungsten chokepoint; the most-exposed is Elbit Systems (88/100). Ranked on the same footprint-adjusted buyer score as above — a relative read of an existing metric, not a new one.
B. Braun Melsungen AG ranks 4th of 49 verified medical devices companies, tied with 3 others at 85.
Same sector_primary, ranked on the company supply-risk index. Restricted to hand-verified dossiers — 1 further medical devices company is tracked but auto-onboarded, and excluded here because their exposure list is a sector template rather than company research. A peer scoring lower is the useful read: it usually means a different production geography or a qualified second source.
Company supply-risk index 85/100 — the binding chokepoint dominates, with a modest add for exposure breadth across 2 scored materials. Buyer-relative (first-order): weighted by where the company produces (DE 100%, HQ proxy), applied across all materials — it does not yet trace each input to its specific sourcing step.
B. Braun Melsungen AG is a German family-owned medical technology group (founded 1839, Melsungen, Hesse) spanning IV/infusion therapy and pump systems, dialysis machines (B. Braun Avitum), and — through its Aesculap division — surgical instruments, implants, and sterilization technology. Aesculap is the world's largest surgical-instrument manufacturer by volume. Over 90% of group sales come from B. Braun's own manufacturing and distribution rather than resale.
instruments and implants in titanium alongside stainless steel; titanium is used for its biocompatibility and corrosion resistance in implantable and reusable surgical hardware.
scissors use tungsten-carbide inserts at the jaw/cutting edge for grip and wear resistance — a small carbide insert per instrument, not a bulk input. 2026-10-07: chromium, nickel, manganese (generic 316L composition, no B. Braun material spec) and copper (no company evidence) were dropped as unsupported. Titanium rests on Aesculap ISOTAN implant listings (distributor-hosted).
No confirmed basis was found for rare-earth magnets (B. Braun makes no MRI or other imaging hardware requiring cryogenic helium or large NdFeB assemblies), silver (its antimicrobial catheter line uses polymer coatings, not silver), tantalum, or niobium in B. Braun's actual product lines, so these sector-default guesses were dropped rather than carried over unverified.
2026-09-09 (Step 3.8 top-up): added one named counterparty, NHS England/DHSC, sourced to a GOV.UK VPAG dispute-resolution decision confirming B. Braun's NHS framework supply arrangement. No other claims re-opened this pass (dead-source fix and material exposures were already handled on 2026-09-07).
From the company’s own filings and dated disclosures — top-5 concentration and related-party tables where the filer’s regime compels them, named supply and offtake agreements where it does not. This is a disclosure, not a netting: a named supplier concentration is shown beside the exposure score and never adjusts it. Figures are the fiscal years labelled, not a current snapshot.
B. Braun Medical Ltd supplies a branded IV sedative to the NHS under an NHS England framework agreement; confirmed in a 2025-02 VPAG dispute-resolution panel decision (GOV.UK) covering B. Braun's pandemic-era off-contract sales dispute.
Alternative track — a counterparty read from primary filings, never merged into the exposure score. Absence of a name is not absence of a relationship: Filers name only the counterparties their regime compels them to name, and several of this company’s largest are disclosed by size with no name at all.
Ranked by buyer-relative risk, highest first.
2 of 2 of your scored CRMA-strategic materials breach the EU’s own Art. 5 65% single-third-country ceiling (global-production proxy).
| Material | Controlled by | You | Global | Band | Art. 5 | Input share | Substitute | Laws | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tungsten | 🇨🇳 CN 90% refining | 88 | 76 | Critical | EXCEEDS 90% | Low | some | 17 | ▲ rising |
| Titanium | 🇨🇳 CN 70% refining | 71 | 59 | High | EXCEEDS 70% | Med | limited | 14 | ▲ rising |
You = buyer-relative score (this company's disclosed footprint vs. the controller). Global = buyer-agnostic supply risk. Substitute = ease of swapping the material out (none = locked in). Input share = the material's disclosed magnitude in the company's input basket (HIGH/MED/LOW only where a public filing quantifies it; — = unrated). Descriptive effect-size, never scored.
Art. 5 = does the global top single-country share breach the EU's own CRMA Art. 5 diversification ceiling (no more than 65% of a strategic raw material from a single third country)? A conservative global-production PROXY for the EU-import denominator — descriptive only, sits beside the score, never merged into it (— = non-strategic material). Reg. (EU) 2024/1252 Art. 5 ↗
Per-material factor scoring on a 1–5 likelihood×impact scale, mapped to the Art. 24(2)(b) risk-factor framework. The headline score above is a portfolio RAG; this matrix is the assessment — it is where two companies with the same binding chokepoint diverge.
| Material | Geopolitical | Concentration | Price / market | Substitutability | Import reliance | Logistics · ESG · Supplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tungsten | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | company input |
| Titanium | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | company input |
1 = very low … 5 = very high — a standard supply-risk likelihood×impact scale (the form a competent authority expects for the Art. 24(2)(b) factor analysis, not a CRMA-numbered scale). Public-source factors are pre-filled from the engine's primary sources (USGS concentration, IPTM government actions, EU import data); the three rightmost factor categories need company / Tier-1 supplier data and are flagged as input under Art. 24(3). Hover any cell for its evidence.
For the conflict-minerals metals among this company's exposures, the named chokepoint refiners that US-listed manufacturers disclose dependence on in their SEC Form SD / Conflict Minerals Reports. This is the peer-disclosed supply base for the material — drawn from 29 US filers' reports — not necessarily this company's own sourcing (which requires its Tier-1 supplier data under Art. 24(3)). It names the specific facilities behind the concentration number.
Two independent lenses: USGS official puts China at 90% of global refining output (by tonnage); US filers' own disclosures independently name China for 54% of their refiners (by facility count). Different metrics — both rank China first.
| Refiner | Country | US filers naming it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jiangwu H.C. Starck Tungsten Products Co., Ltd.CID2551 | China | 15 | SEC |
| Chongyi Zhangyuan Tungsten Co., Ltd.CID258 | China | 14 | SEC |
| Ganzhou Jiangwu Ferrotungsten Co., Ltd.CID2315 | China | 14 | SEC |
| Ganzhou Seadragon W & Mo Co., Ltd.CID2494 | China | 14 | SEC |
| Jiangxi Gan Bei Tungsten Co., Ltd.CID2321 | China | 14 | SEC |
Source: US SEC Form SD / Conflict Minerals Report exhibits (EDGAR full-text search), aggregated from RMI smelter tables. “US filers naming it” = distinct US-listed companies whose most-recent CMR names that refiner — disclosure-derived presence, not verified throughput. Link opens the SEC exhibit.
Every new filing and every amendment (rate change, scope change, repeal) touching this company's materials in the window above. Append ?since=YYYY-MM-DD to this URL for a custom start date.
Restrictive government measures on this company's materials, newest first — each links to its primary government source.
+ 14 more in the register.
The Art. 24(2)(c) vulnerability assessment, made explicit. For each leading exposure we model the move in this company's buyer-relative score under two distinct supply-disruption scenarios — the production footprint held fixed, only one lever moved at a time so each delta isolates one shock:
| Type | Scenario | Today | Stressed | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Policy | Tungsten — 🇨🇳 CN escalates tungsten controls to a full export-licensing / ban regime | 88 | 91 | +3 |
| Concentration | Tungsten — 🇨🇳 CN becomes the single source for tungsten — the second source is lost (full 90%+ monopoly) | 88 | 92 | +4 |
| Policy | Titanium — 🇨🇳 CN escalates titanium controls to a full export-licensing / ban regime | 71 | 77 | +6 |
| Concentration | Titanium — 🇨🇳 CN becomes the single source for titanium — the second source is lost (full 70%+ monopoly) | 71 | 89 | +18 |
A zero delta means that lever is already modelled at maximum on that material — today's score already prices it in. This is why the two scenarios are shown together: where a material's policy lever is already maxed (zero policy delta), the concentration shock still carries a real delta, and vice-versa. Each stressed score isolates its one lever; all other factors are held at current values.
No material crosses the significant-vulnerability threshold. The Art. 24(4) mitigation duty is not triggered on the public-source evidence; the mitigations below are precautionary.
Stated threshold (so the conclusion is reproducible and auditable): buyer-relative band ≥ High AND substitutability hard/none AND ≥ 1 in-force restrictive measure on the material, assessed over the materials this company buys. The CRMA does not fix a numeric definition of “significant”; the company may adopt a stricter or looser threshold and should record it here.
Proposed, announced or draft regulation that is not yet in force but would touch this company's at-risk materials if it passes. Forward-looking early-warning — the likelihood shown is an honest band derived from the legislative stage, not a forecast or a fabricated probability. Kept separate from the enacted register above: nothing here is law yet.
Likelihood band is derived deterministically from the legislative stage (announced → low; draft-published / in-consultation → moderate; passed-committee → elevated; passed-vote / awaiting-signature → high) — a reproducible, source-traceable proxy, not a probability estimate. Where shown, the modelled impact-if-passed re-uses the same buyer-relative stress engine as the enacted scenarios above: it holds this company's production footprint fixed and escalates the proposed measure to a full export-licensing / control regime — the conservative upper bound for a measure that may pass only as a partial cap. The delta is the move from today's score to that stressed score; companies with no modelled production footprint show no delta.
Forward-looking read on the binding chokepoint, from the recent trajectory of policy on these materials. Directional, not a forecast.
The mitigating efforts Art. 24(4) names — diversifying the supply chain and substituting the material — plus the standard levers against a concentrated, policy-exposed input. Prioritise around the binding input chokepoint (Tungsten).
Under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (Reg. (EU) 2024/1252), a Member State identifies the large companies (Art. 2(29): >500 employees and >€150M net worldwide turnover) using strategic raw materials to manufacture a listed strategic technology (batteries, renewables, hydrogen, traction motors, heat pumps, aircraft, data-storage equipment, robotics, drones, satellites, advanced chips). Those companies must, at least every three years and to the extent the information is available to them (Art. 24(2)), assess their strategic-raw-material supply chain. Where suppliers do not provide the data on request, the assessment may rely on the Commission's monitoring dashboard (Art. 20(4)) or other publicly available information (Art. 24(3)) — which is the evidence base this report assembles. Board reporting (Art. 24(5)) is voluntary unless the Member State mandates it (Art. 24(6)).
| CRMA provision | Obligation | Where addressed |
|---|---|---|
| Art. 24(1) | Member State identifies the company as in-scope (uses an SRM to make a listed strategic technology). | Scope & applicability |
| Art. 24(2)(a) | Map where the strategic raw materials are extracted, processed and recycled. | Exposure register + Supply-risk factor analysis |
| Art. 24(2)(b) | Analyse the factors that might affect supply. | Supply-risk factor analysis (factor matrix) + The laws that threaten it |
| Art. 24(2)(c) | Assess vulnerabilities to supply disruptions. | Stress test + significant-vulnerability conclusion |
| Art. 24(3) | Where supplier data is unavailable, rely on Commission (Art. 20(4)) / public sources. | This report's basis — see Methodology & sources |
| Art. 24(4) | Where significant vulnerabilities are found, assess diversifying or substituting. | Significant-vulnerability conclusion + Priority mitigations |
| Art. 24(5)–(6) | Report results, sources, significant risks and mitigations to the board. | This document — board-ready, PDF-exportable |
This report pre-fills the Art. 24(3) public-source half of the assessment. The company-specific inputs — employee/turnover thresholds, bill-of-materials volumes, the tiered supplier map, and formal board adoption — remain the company's to complete; they are flagged as “company input” where they appear.
Article 24 applies only when both size thresholds are met and a Member State has identified the company as making a listed strategic technology with strategic raw materials.
| Threshold test | This assessment |
|---|---|
| Average employees (last FY) > 500 | company input |
| Net worldwide turnover (last FY) > €150M | company input |
| Uses a strategic raw material as an input | Yes — 2 scored SRMs on the input side (binding: Tungsten) |
| Manufactures a listed strategic technology | medical-devices (confirm against Annex) |
| Formally identified by a Member State authority | company input |
Production-concentration figures: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 + the production dataset behind each material page. Policy measures trace to the primary government sources below.
Each material's global supply-risk index blends five weighted factors: concentration of refining/processing (35%), active trade-control & policy pressure (25%), import reliance (15%), substitutability (15%), and price stress (10%). The buyer-relative score then scales the relational factors (concentration / policy / import) by this company's production-footprint alignment against each material's controlling country — bloc-neutral factors (substitutability, price) are left intact.
Caveats. The footprint is the company's assembly / manufacturing geography applied uniformly across all materials — a first-order proxy, not per-material input tracing. Scores are an analytical judgement on public data with a transparent weighting, not a market forecast or investment advice. Production shares reflect 2024-2025 figures and the policy position as of 2026-08-06; the register is continuously maintained and should be re-pulled against each new policy action.
MACROLENS · CICONIALABS · GEOPOLITICAL SUPPLY-RISK REPORT (EU CRMA ART. 20–25) · report generated 2026-10-07
Tip: the change log above defaults to the last 30 days. Append ?since=YYYY-MM-DD to this URL for a custom start date (e.g. ?since=2026-04-01).
This is a description of the actual automated pipeline (verifiable against this repo's own cron schedule), not a contractual commitment.