By Melissa Pistilli – Exclusive to Tin Investing News

Indonesia’s refined tin exports in August dropped 16.7 per cent to 8,231.49 tonnes from 9,883.28 tonnes in July, down 28.5 per cent from a year ago.

The decline in tin exports may be attributed to buyers who have curtailed purchase due to adequate stock, said Hartojo Agus Tjahjono, Director of Industrial and Mining Product Exports at the Trade Ministry.

Tin exports from Indonesia began slowing d own last year after the government started cracking down on illegal mining in the Bangka-Belitung islands, the country’s main source of tin. The government has since enacted strict policies for exports, including a government regulation that allows only the export of refined tin, and closed down several small shelters.

“On an average, our tin ingot exports range from 7,000 tons to 9,000 tons a month,” said Tjahjono. The ministry’s data shows that the August tin exports were shipped only to Singapore (7,567.3 tonnes), Malaysia (644.33 tonnes) and Taiwan (19.87 tonnes). August tin exports were not received by traditional markets such as Hong Kong, India, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea. “Perhaps they still have large stocks,” added Tjahjono.

Tjahjono forecast a 70 per cent increase in Indonesian tin ingot exports this year over last year. “But there will be no surge in the volume of tin ingot exports this year. We predict the volume of our tin ingot exports until the end of this year will reach nearly 100,000 tons,” he said. Indonesia’s refined tin exports for the first half of this year were 46,321 tonnes worth US$863.252 million.

Today, the price of tin rose to US$18,995/tonne over yesterday’s US$18,300/tonne.

Indonesian tin smelters press for Jakarta tin market

The Bangka Belitung Timah Sejahtera (BBTS) consortium, a group of tin smelting operators, is pressuring the government to form a Jakarta tin market to strengthen Indonesian tin producers’ position at the bargaining table. “If the market is already operating, we hope we could determine the tin price,” said BBTS Director Patris Lumumba.

Lumumba and the BBTS want the government to immediately prepare the necessary regulation to expedite the operation of the Jakarta market, and are ready to provide their input and engage in discussions concerning its implementation.

Director General of Mining, Minerals and Natural Gas Bambang Setiawan had recently emphasized the importance of the market given that Indonesia’s tin production accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s total demand. “We are more appropriate to be a world tin marketing country. Certainly the idea has to be discussed first with the shareholders and other countries,” said Setiawan. In 2007, Indonesia produced 93,735 metric tonnes of tin ingots worth US$1,354 billion.

According to Director General of Foreign Trade Diah Maulida, the government would grease the wheels for Indonesian tin businesses to play a role in planning the market. Two tin markets are already in operation in Kuala Lumpur for the Asian region and in London for Europe and America.

PT Timah President Director Wachid Usman has said if Indonesia has a tin market, its brokers and traders would gladly take a part in it. Purchasers around the world would look to Jakarta and Indonesians would determine the price, he said. “It would be the Indonesians that would benefit as much as while it was the Malaysians that had enjoyed it.”

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