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China may cut tin exports by 10% this year

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-02-13 11:09

China, the world's biggest producer of tin, may cut exports of the refined metal by 10 percent this year, further depleting global stockpiles that are already at their lowest since November 2005, according to analysts yesterday.

China's exports of tin, used to solder electronic components, dropped 12 percent in 2006 to 19,000 metric tons on rising domestic demand and higher export taxes, Cui Lin, tin analyst atBeijingAntaike Information Co, said in an interview.

Tin prices have climbed to record highs in the past year on concern about reduced supply from Indonesia, the world's second-biggest producer. Consumption in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, is also rising as the country uses more of the metal for soldering micro chips, Bloomberg News said.

"The rapid growth of the domestic market in China has reduced the amount of tin exports," Peter Kettle, head of research at ITRI Ltd, a producer-funded tin organization in St Albans, England, said by phone on Thursday.

Global tin consumption expanded nine percent in 2006, according to ITRI data. Demand rose to 360,000 tons from 330,300 tons in 2005, helped by electronics makers increasing the tin component of solder to substitute for lead, a poisonous metal.

Tin for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to US$12,400 a ton at 10:16am local time yesterday, just US$100 below the US$12,500 record on January 24, which was the highest in at least 18 years. The metal has gained 59 percent in the past year as inventories, monitored by the London Metal Exchange, fell 32 percent.