Continuing the recent pattern of alternating bullish and bearish news from Indonesia, two stories this morning provided a bit of both. Earlier Bangka-Belitung governor Eko Ali Maulana told reporters that the provincial government would not limit operations by independent smelters, due to growing economic hardship being experienced by small-scale mines. Later provisional export data from the trade ministry showed a 47% fall in November shipments.
The governor, who had urged smelters to close in October, told Reuters that the shutdown was threatening the livelihood of small scale miners at a time when the prices of rubber and pepper – other key sources of income on the islands – were also falling. About 40 percent of the islands’ workforce is involved in tin mining.
"We see that the situation is not improving and people are finding it more difficult to get money," he said. "I will allow tin smelters to resume operations and go back to normal trade without limitation from the local government," he said, ahead of a central government decision on issuing a new quota on production. However a spokesman for the consortium of major private smelters said that they would remain closed until January, as originally planned, although they would buy ore from the small mines. The consortium plans to resume production in January with monthly production of between 300-400 tonnes, far below capacity.
Indonesia’s refined tin exports were estimated to have dropped to 4,381 tonnes in November, a 47 percent fall from 8,295 tonnes in the same month a year ago, the trade ministry said later. The trade ministry data, based on reports by surveyors monitoring shipments under its export licence system, gives a cumulative total in the year to date of 84,356 tonnes.
