- Overview
- ★Indonesia’s export restrictions fail to lift tin market
- Indonesia has implemented strict restrictions on tin exports since early 2013 to boost global tin price. The country exported around 70,000t of tin over 2015, slumping to the lowest level in 9 years, but the tin price continued to shift downward.
- ★Burma becomes a major tin ore supplier
- Tin exports from Indonesia decreased year by year, while Burma witnessed a year-on-year increase in its tin exports. According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, China’s tin ore imports rose by 64% YOY to around 290,000t in 2015, 286,000t of which was imported from Burma, recording an increase of 65% YOY and accounting for 98% of total imports in China.
- ★Democratic Republic of the Congo’s tin trade greatly affected by conflicts
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo) provides 4% of the global tin supply, but conflicts greatly limit the effective development and utilization of tin resources in the country. China only imported 132t of tin ore from the country, recording a decline of 84.26% YOY. More attention is needed for the normalization and rigorous CSFP audit of Central Africa’s mining.
- ★China carries out supply-side reform, major Chinese tin smelters jointly cut output
- The Chinese government put forward the idea of supply-side reform at the end of 2015. Many companies involved in tin businesses suffer greater losses as the Chinese tin market continues to see weak demand. Therefore, urgent action is needed to address the overcapacity problem. Major tin producers in domestic market have also announced a joint reduction in output and planned to cut tin concentrate production by 17,000t in 2016.