All the assets of Singapore Tin Industries Pte Ltd are to be offered for sale by tender on 15 January 2009. Local consultants Robert Khan, acting for the receiver, has circulated a notice offering a complete 36,000 tpy capacity tin refinery “with two melting and crystallization lines, one ingot continuous casting line, one packing line and ancillary equipment and office furniture and equipment”. The STI plant, opened in 2006, is in Singapore’s Jurong industrial estate.
STI is a joint venture between Yunnan Tin Company (42%) and local partners KJP International (58%). The new refinery has struggled to obtain Indonesian crude metal for refining since it first opened. Tin output dropped from 8,738 tonnes in 2006 to 2,914 tonnes in 2007 and the plant has been inactive for much of this year. In September YTC announced that it has repaid $6 million of debts incurred by the Singapore joint venture to United Overseas Bank Ltd. The partners in STI also invested in a large new smelter on Bangka island, PT Bangka Global Mandiri Internasional, which started up late last year but has also been closed for most of 2008.
