China imported 1,562 tonnes of refined tin in May, up by 95% year-on-year, according to the latest official customs data. 90% of the total imports was from Indonesia. Cumulative imports in January – May were 11,196 tonnes, up by 225% from 3,444 tonnes in the first five months of last year.
The substantial imports have partly replaced local production – which has been restrained by shortages of concentrates and scrap and falling prices – but have also resulted in an accumulation of stocks held by producers and traders since the start of the year. The Chinese domestic physical price has broken the important support level of RMB 150,000 yuan/t (US $23,810/t) today, but is still at a relatively high premium to the London metal Exchange because of the big fall in the LME price in last week.
China imported 4,427 tonnes of tin concentrate (gross weight) in May, down by 3.5% y-o-y, but the total imports in January-May were up by 9.8% to 15,895 tonnes. More than two-thirds of the total came from Burma.
