Discover how tin is shaping the world of technology, driving innovation and connectivity across industries
Crucial to modern life
Tin is a highly versatile technical metal, invisibly present in numerous applications crucial to modern life.
The metal has come a long way since the bronze age. Although it is still used in food cans, pewter and bearings, its most important applications are now in solder and chemicals, with numerous new energy materials now also in R&D.
As the invisible component in modern technology, including all electronics and renewable energy systems, it is becoming increasingly important that the world realises tin’s vital role in making the future.


Tin is essential
The essential uses of tin are almost too numerous to mention.
Take a house for example, tin is everywhere, All of the electrical and electronics rely on tin including the wiring, the TV and the washing machine. The glass in the windows is made flat using molten tin in the float glass process and the wine glasses are coated invisibly with tin to stop them breaking. PVC in the doors and windows likely contains tin PVC stabilisers, the silicone bath sealant may well have been made with tin and even the polyurethane insulation in the walls could have needed tin to set solid. And that’s before we look in the cupboards to notice the tinplate food cans or check the ingredients on the toothpaste to see if its uses tin fluoride.
Driving the car out of the garage would also not be possible without tin. Apart from all of the wiring, connectors and electronics, there is the glass windscreen, more plastics and possibly even tin in the tyres. Little known also is that around 1% of tin is used in car battery grids to make them stronger and more powerful. Electric vehicles have larger solder joints and use even more tin.
This highly diverse range of applications illustrates the remarkable and typically unique properties of this little-known metal, making a robust market with low risk of substitution.
Tin is the glue for all electronics
As the digitalisation revolution moves rapidly forward, now powered by AI, it is especially important to emphasise that tin connects the future through its use as solder.
Every electronic device, however small or large, contains hundreds or thousands of tiny metal connections, glued together by tin. Electrons and data bytes whizzing around the globe have to travel through multiple trillions of solder joints.
Tin is the only low melting point metal capable of alloying with copper at the right temperatures and then cooling to form joints with precisely the right reliability at the scale and cost required. Decades of technology and multiple billions of dollars spent in PCB qualification continue apace, including the widescale introduction of lead-free solders over more than thirty years.


Tin powers the future
Tin is already at the heart of the renewable energy transition and is set to expand its uses into multiple new energy uses as its unique properties once again come to the fore.
Hiding in plain sight is tin’s use in solar panels. The silver strips across the front of every one are solar ribbon – a copper tape coated with a tin solder alloy. This collects and channels all the generated electricity into the junction boxes and beyond. From there tin solder and coatings connect all of the control electronics and cabling to take power to the grid.
At the same time R&D teams around the world have been working on developing new tin-based materials for energy applications. The most recent and exciting is tin use in sodium-ion batteries, promising a cheaper and safer alternative to lithium-ion in many applications. Others include new cheaper perovskite solar materials, hydrogen generation, heat harvesting, carbon capture catalysts and fuel cells.
Wake up to tin
Looking to the future it seems clear that governments and investors need to urgently wake up to the importance of tin in achieving global ambitions.
In common with copper and other technical metals, expected technology demand, on top of baseline growth, needs to be supported by accelerated capacity investments and strategic foresight. ITA estimates that $1.4 billion new investment will be needed by 2030.
There is enough tin in the ground, as resources are enough for at least 40 years. At least 80 new tin mine projects exist, with more than adequate forecast output, although few are yet making progress. At the same time there is a new focus on tin tailings and rapid technology developments are set to unlock significant new tin supply from solder joints in e-waste.
Representing tin producers, ITA is working to support the tin industry in exploiting these exciting new opportunities.
