To provide new methods for producing low-oxygen metal powder and a low-oxygen target material with a dense structure from a metallic material composed of the group 4a elements (Ti, Zr, Hf) or the group 5a elements (V, Nb, Ta) having high affinity with oxygen.

In the method for producing alloy powder, a metallic material selected from the group 4a and 5a elements is subjected to heat treatment in a hydrogen atmosphere, so as to produce a hydrogen-containing alloy, next, the hydrogen-containing alloy is pulverized, so as to be hydrogen-containing alloy powder, further, the hydrogen-containing alloy powder is passed through thermal plasma flame generated in an atmosphere essentially consisting of an inert gas, and dehydrogenation, oxygen reduction and spheroidizing are simultaneously performed. Further, in the method for producing a target material, the powder obtained by the above is subjected to pressure sintering.

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