Korea agency continues purchases

Mar 13, 2009

South Korea has bought 100 tonnes of tin ingot for shipping by May 10 to the port of Busan and is seeking another 300 tonnes, the state-run Public Procurement Service said on Friday. The agency bought the first tranche at a premium of $360/tonne c.i.f. over the LME...

Slump in China’s tin production

Mar 12, 2009

Preliminary base metals production figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics show that February refined tin production fell by 44% year-on-year to 4,530 tonnes. Cumulative production in January-February was only 9,645 tonnes, 43% lower than in...

Russian steelmakers report better tinplate business

Mar 12, 2009

Russian steel companies Severstal and MMK have both reported high capacity utilisation rates at their tinplate operations in the USA and Russia respectively. In the case of Severstal’s business, tinplate is faring much better than other steel products in North...

Indonesian shipments increase in February

Mar 10, 2009

Trade ministry data released today shows that the volume of tin checked for export from Indonesia in February rose by 15% relative to February 2008 to 8,534 tonnes. In addition several thousand tonnes of tin held up by customs in January was also released and shipped...

Guangxi stockpile latest

Mar 9, 2009

Further information on planned stockpiling by China’s Guangxi province emerged at the weekend. China’s three main tin-producing provinces now all have stockpile plans in operation or planned, with Yunnan’s in effect since the start of the year and...

Labour problems delay Bolivia-Glencore deal

Mar 9, 2009

Long-running negotiations to convert some of Glencore subsidiary Sinchi Wayra’s mines into joint ventures with state participation are now held up as a result of labour unrest, according to Bloomberg. The government has been mediating at talks between Sinchi...