Preliminary non-ferrous metals production figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that refined tin output rose 6.8% year-on-year to 13,214 tonnes in October. Meanwhile production of other metals such as copper, aluminium and zinc grew much more rapidly. Tin production has been constrained by a shortage of concentrates, and the modest revival in output in the last two months probably reflects the re-refining of tin imported from LME warehouses.
The NBS data shows that in the first ten months of 2007 refined tin production rose by 8% compared to the same period last year to 124,808 tonnes. However it is likely that the figures for both years include some double counting.
