China tin producers announce co-ordinated production cuts

China’s nine major tin producers, including the world’s largest supplier Yunnan Tin Company, announced today that they would reduce their combined production by some 17,000 tonnes or 12% year-on-year in 2016 in response to adverse market conditions. The...

China prices rebound as production is cut

China domestic tin prices have soared by more than 20% in the past 10 days. The big differential which had emerged between prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) and LME encouraged arbitrage buying on SHFE, forcing covering of speculative short positions. The...

Hong Kong exchange launches tin futures contract

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) has launched one-tonne futures contracts in nickel and tin, and a five tonne mini-lead contract, Reuters reported. The new contracts – which are aimed at Chinese retail investors – are denoted in yuan, but based on London...

China clamps down on hidden tin exports

Favourable price arbitrage since the end of September should have encouraged Chinese tin exports, at least for tin products which are exempt from the 10% export duty charged on refined tin ingot. However this is not evident in the latest official trade statistics...

China Tin shuts down Ausmelt furnace temporarily

The China Tin Group put its tin smelter, located in Laibin, Guangxi Province, into maintenance on Tuesday for three weeks. The Ausmelt furnace started up in March 2013 with a production capacity of 20,000 tpy and produced more than 12,000 t refined tin in 2014. This...

Myanmar tin exports fall slightly in July

According to the latest official customs data, July exports of tin concentrate from Myanmar to China amounted to 20,095 tonnes gross weight. This represents a 29% year-on-year increase but a 19% decrease compared to June. Cumulative concentrate imports from Myanmar...

China Tin Industry Code of Conduct announced

The China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has recently revealed a draft China Tin Industry Code of Conduct which currently has public opinion solicitation status. The new Code of Conduct has 7 aspects including enterprise layout; quality,...

No let-up in Myanmar sales

Latest official customs data from China shows that tin ore and concentrate from Myanmar continues to flow in large volumes across the border between the two countries. June imports by China amounted to 24,632 tonnes gross weight, up by 55% compared to June last year....

China refined tin imports drop sharply in May

China refined tin imports dropped 69% from 1,070 tonnes in April to 333 tonnes in May. The May figure also represents a 48% reduction compared to the same month of 2014. Although the arbitrage gap was wider than in April, a lack of market interest and sufficient...

China tin imports boom in April

China tin imports boomed in April 2015, particularly imports of tin concentrates. China tin concentrate imports had declined over 4 months since last December. But the trend was reversed from mid-April, when concentrate imports grew 193% year-on-year and hit...