Singapore Tin Industries (STI) confirmed on 11 October that its production in 2007 will fall well short of its original target of 18,000 tonnes. “For this year, our maximum production will be between 6,000 and 7,000 tonnes,” director Petrus Tjandra told Reuters, adding that output had been slow in the last nine months because of difficulties in obtaining crude tin from Bangka. “But I think in the next three months, we can produce 1,500 tonnes each month”.
STI is a joint venture refinery between China’s Yunnan Tin and KJP International of Singapore which started up in June 2006. It produced 8,738 tonnes of refined tin in the second half of last year but only 579 tonnes in the first half of 2007. The two companies have since invested in a new smelter in Indonesia which is due to start production before the end of the year.
