Seventeen Indonesian private smelters have established a new representative group, the Association of Indonesia Tin Exporters (or AETI, from its title in Indonesian). The membership includes all the major independent smelters and most of the 21 seller members of the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX). AETI has been set up to replace the Indonesian Tin Association, which has been largely inactive in recent years, and will focus mainly on relations with the federal and local governments and ICDX.
AETI’s initial first priority is in representing the views of the industry in consultations with Indonesia’s trade ministry regarding potential revisions of Export Regulation 32/2013 which came into effect last year and specified quality standards and required exchange-trading of ingots before export. The ministry is working on revisions covering both specifications for tin ingots and rules for non-ingot products. The new ingot specifications may include impurity limits for arsenic, bismuth and antimony in addition to the existing ones for lead and iron and smelters are concerned that these may be un-necessarily strict.
Other hot topics include financing and management of mine rehabilitation work, smelter auditing as part of the global conflict-free smelter programme and safe shipment of tin from Indonesia (following the seizure of a vessel by the navy in March).
Jabin Sufianto of PT Eunindo Usaha Mandiri, an integrated mining and smelting company based in Karimun, has been elected President of AETI, with representatives of all the main Bangka-Belitung companies involved as vice-presidents or trustees.
AETI welcomes feedback from all tin users and traders regarding their quality requirements, especially on desirable impurity limits for arsenic, bismuth and antimony and requests that information be sent by email to [email protected]
