Provisional non-ferrous metals production figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics today show that refined tin production rose by 7.4% to 149,102 tonnes last year. December output was reported at 12,682 tonnes, 2.3% up on a year earlier.
ITRI believes that the NBS data slightly over-states China’s production in 2006 and 2007 due to some double counting. Output in the second half of 2007 may also include some re-refining of tin imported from LME warehouses in Singapore and Korea. The data nevertheless confirms China’s status as the world’s number one tin producing country by a substantial margin.
