Monsoon begins to reduce Indonesian supplies
The onset of heavy rains on Bangka and Belitung islands is reported to have reduced ore supplies to independent smelters by over 20% this month. “Workers fear landslides may occur as a result of the heavy rains. Even when the weather is dry, the lands may still...
Chinese tin production revives in October
Preliminary non-ferrous metals production figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that refined tin output rose 6.8% year-on-year to 13,214 tonnes in October. Meanwhile production of other metals such as copper, aluminium and zinc grew...
Rise in Peru’s tin production
Peru’s September output of tin-in-concentrate rose by 14.2% year-on-year to 3,369 tonnes, according to official mine production fugures released by the Ministry of Energy and Mines yesterday. All of the country’s production comes from Minsur’s San...
Large Indonesian exports indicated in October
Provisional data issued by Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade today indicate that the volume of tin being shipped from Indonesia remains large, and may have increased in the last month. The surveyors’ reports used by the Ministry show that 13,509 tonnes of...
Yunnan Tin reduces Australian stake
China’s Yunnan Tin Group is swapping part of its shareholding in Australia’s YTC Resources Limited for a stake in Hong Kong listed Poly Investment Holdings, as well as investing a further HK$ 192 million in the latter company. At the end of the planned...
Quotas or no quotas?
Last week there was a spate of comments from Indonesian government officials regarding the possible introduction of tin export or production quotas. Not surprisingly these conflicting reports have been feeding price volatility around the current record levels, so we...
China NRDC announces investment restrictions
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has announced further restrictions on investment in tin and other metals. As of 31 October foreign investors are banned from exploring for or developing tungsten, molybdenum, tin or antimony, and from exploring...
Re-think on US stockpile sales?
The US Defense Logistics Agency appears to be re-thinking the disposal of the remaining metal held in its stockpile. Last month a major review of stockpile policy was completed by the National Research Council, which concluded that there should be major changes in the...
PT Timah invests in offshore production
Indonesia’s PT Timah aims to produce up to 60,000 tpy of tin by 2009, based on increased investment in offshore mining, the company’s President Director Wahid Usman told Bloomberg on Friday. Timah may sell 56,000 tonnes of tin this year, Usman said, higher...