The Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX) told Bloomberg on Monday that 500 tonnes of tin which had been sold through the exchange would be exported this week. This would bring shipments made this month up to 1,130 tonnes. Trading volumes on the exchange have increased considerably this week, with 1,320 tonnes traded. Furthermore the ICDX prices have been at a significant premium to the LME price for the first time since the end of August, when the new export regulation requiring all tin ingot exports to be traded locally came into effect. As LME prices have slipped to below $23,000/tonne, ICDX prices have been steady at $23,400 for TINPB300, $23,500 for TINPB200 and $23,650 for TINPB100.
ITRI View: As previously stated, we estimate that average daily sales need to be 300 – 400 tpd in order to meet global tin requirements. That volume has been reached on three out of five days this week. This needs to continue consistently in order to give consumers confidence that the Indonesian supply bottleneck initially caused by the regulation has been overcome.
