Singapore Tin Industries will cut its output target by around 33 percent to 12,000 tonnes this year due to supply constraints in Indonesia, its director Petrus Tjandra told Reuters today.
The refiner, a joint venture between China’s top producer, Yunnan Tin, and local tin firm, KJP International, sources tin ingots mainly from the neighbouring Indonesian island of Bangka. STI started the 240,000-square feet refinery in the western part of Singapore in June 2006 and initially planned to produce 18,000 tonnes of refined tin by June this year.
But it was likely to produce 12,000 tonnes and rely on material from Myanmar, Vietnam, India and Australia following the closure of small smelters on Bangka. It also sources ingots from and warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange.
Earlier Malaysia Smelting Corporation had announced that its 75% subsidiary PT Koba Tin, based on Bangka, would reduce planned output in 2007 to 17,000 tonnes, with 55% of the total coming from its own dredging and gravel pump operations and the balance purchased from small mines operating within its Contract of Work area. Until recently Koba had been producing some 2,000 tpm of refined tin.
