Provisional data released by the trade ministry today indicates that October was another slow month for Indonesian smelters. The volume of tin checked for export by surveying companies as part of the ministry’s export licencing scheme last month was 7,060 tonnes, 9% lower than the previous month. Total tonnage in the first ten months of the year was 82,613 tonnes, up 3.3% on the same period of 2008. The rolling twelve month total is some 90,800 tonnes.
Increased police activity against illegal mining from late August and bad weather in the last month has resulted in low operating rates by most private smelters recently, although an unidentified ministry official suggested to Reuters that some inventory may have been built up. “Smelters may have held back their exports waiting for prices to go up" he said, noting that smelters have seen their margins squeezed because they have to buy raw material at a higher costs as a result of the crackdown.
Rudi Irawan, a director of smelting and exporting firm CV Stania Prima, said during the first ten months of the year exporters had sold refined tin at an average of $13,000 per tonne, which he said was below an economically viable price of $17,000 per tonne.
