Officials of both the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and Ministry of Trade have this week commented on proposals to limit Indonesian tin production at 100,000 tonnes per year.
On Tuesday Mangantar Marpaung, a director at the former ministry, told reporters in Jakarta that the government may issue a ruling in the next two months. “We can’t sacrifice our villages for the sake of those tin users” Marpaung told Bloomberg News. The mining minister will set a limit on national output, while the governments of tin producing regions will issue detailed rules, he said.
On Wednesday a senior official at the trade ministry confirmed to the official Antara news agency that such plans were under discussion and added that controls on production were preferable to export quotas.
“The government will limit tin exports. This policy has become a discourse among government ministries. The export restriction will be effected not through a trade minister’s regulation, but through a production quota that will restrict producers’ outputs,” External Trade Director General Diah Maulida said. “Restricting production will be more effective than limiting exports because export limitations can be manipulated by smugglers,” Maulida said.
The trade ministry already monitors and controls tin exports through a licencing system introduced in February last year. Various proposals to cap exports or production have been under discussion since last March.
