Seven of Indonesia’s private tin smelters are now members of the Indonesia Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (ICDX). The companies, along with state-controlled PT Timah account for around a half of Indonesian tin production. According to the ICDX website, the private smelters which are now trader members are PT Refined Bangka Tin, PT Mitra Stania Prima, PT Prima Timah Utama, PT Inti Stania Prima, PT Eunindo Usaha Mandiri, PT Bukit Timah and PT Artha Cipta Langgeng. While the first two were members since 2012, the latter five have all joined recently. Two of them (PT Refined Bangka Tin and PT Bukit Timah) have LME registered brands.
According to Antara News, the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) has proposed that members of the exchange could purchase and re-refine metal from non-member companies who are not compliant with new quality regulations. However this proposal still requires both federal and provincial government approvals, as well as the negotiation of acceptable processing charges.
ITRI View: Tin sales on the ICDX rose to 665 tonnes last week, but have amounted to only 105 tonnes this week, due to public holidays and a fall in LME prices. We estimate that average daily sales will have to rise to 300 – 400 tpd in order to meet global tin requirements.
