The global tin supply was in shortage

Asian Metal Ltd. All rights reserved. Tel: [phone]/33/44

Asian Metal Ltd. All rights reserved. Tel: [phone]/33/44

The global demand of tin was increasing in 2008, but affected by the production issues

both in China and Indonesia, the global supply of tin was in shortage.

As the main tin sand production country, Indonesia government dights the invalid mining,

and the output of tin concentrate decreased greatly. Since 2008, big storm disaster hit the

south area, Hunan Chenzhou in China, leading to tin plants halting production for almost

two months, which strengthened the shortage of supply further.

As the fuel cost increased in June,2008, small-sized tin plants were forced to halt or

reduce production, so that the supply volume of refined tin in Indonesia declined greatly.

Huanuni, the largest tin ore producer in Bolivia, broke out the strike, employees requested

that the local government deepened the reform of retirement pension, so gave a great hit

to the output of tin ore. The subprime lending crisis broke out completely in U.S. at the end

of October, and tin price dropped sharply. Both plants in Indonesia and China halted or

reduced production successively. Most small-sized private tin plants in Indonesia Bangka

Belitung stopped production and the local government urged big-sized plants to reduce

production in order to keep tin price stable. The global largest diversity tin producer, PT

Timah Co.,Ltd, also decided to reduce output by 23 % to 45-48 thousand tons compared

with that in 2007. As the largest tin export country, the total volume of refined tin in

Indonesia was 75,535.05 tons from January to September, 2008. The total output of

Indonesia was 79,210 tons in 2008, dropping by 13% compared to 91280 tons in 2007.

The government did not confirm the output scheme in 2009, as the demand keeps slow

and tin price is very low. As the largest tin producer in the world, Yunnan Tin Group,

almost depends on price fluctuations. The Group planned to produce 60-70 thousand tons

of refined tin, while they were forced to reduce production by 30% in the fourth quarter.

The phase production reduction was mainly because that the demand kept uncertainty, so

that they can avoid risks successfully. Meanwhile, they can give a signal that the tin supply

has reduced greatly and adjusted the balance between the demand and supply, which

gave a strong support to tin price.

As WBMS revealed, the supply shortage of global refined tin was 4300 tons. The output of

refined tin reduced by 15800 tons to 334,200 tons compared with that last year, including

the transaction of 3800 tons from Defense Logistics Agency. The supply volume was 338

thousand tons, while the global demand decreased by 4.2% to 342,300 tons. The output

of China declined by 4.6% to 127,700 tons in 2008.The consumption volume of U.S.

rebounded in November and December, but it declined by 25.8% in the whole year. The

consumption volume of Japan decreased by 5.6%.

Chinese apparent tin demand volume and output chart in 2008

Output􀋄10 thousand

tons􀋅

2008 2007 Increase

􀋄decrease􀋅

volume

Compare􀋄%􀋅

Refined tin 12.9 15.1 2.2 -14.70%

Asian Metal Ltd. All rights reserved. Tel: [phone]/33/44

Asian Metal Ltd. All rights reserved. Tel: [phone]/33/44

Net import􀋄10

thousand tons􀋅

2008 2007 Increase

􀋄decrease􀋅

volume

Compare􀋄%􀋅

Tin 1.2 -0.74 -1.94 -263.30%

Apparent

consumption volume

􀋄10 thousand tons􀋅

2008 2007 Increase

􀋄decrease􀋅

volume

Compare􀋄%􀋅

Tin 14.1 14.4 0.3 -2.10%

By the end of December, the stocks on LME were 7,800 tons, lower than 12,200 tons last

year. The output of tin ore decreased by 11.1% to 311,500 tons. The global tin output was

26,500 tons in December, and the consumption volume was 28,000 tons. The surplus was

1,500 tons.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-06