Several news agencies have reported that the Indonesian government is close to setting a maximum limit of 100,000 tonnes on annual tin production.
The planned restriction on tin ingot production will be stipulated in a decree of the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister to be issued in the near future, Director General of Minerals, Coal and Geothermal Energy Simon F Sembiring said on Tuesday according to Antara. “We have already completed the draft of the ministerial decree,” he said.
The decree will only stipulate the upper limit of tin ingot production while the production quota of each tin mining company will be set forth in a gubernatorial decision. “The ministerial decree will serve as a legal umbrella while the quota of tin mining companies including PT Timah, PT Koba Tin and mining concessionaires will be decided by the governor," he said.
A Thomson Reuters report quoted Sembiring as saying “We (the government) want to set the upper limit for tin production this year to a range of 90,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes per annum”. The upper limit will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary every year.
“It is time for Indonesia to be able to dictate the tin price on the world market", he said according to Asia Pulse, adding “we will control production to keep price stability.” Sembiring said he hoped the price would not go up too high, adding that an ideal price is US$15,000 per tonne.
