At the end of last week ITRI released findings from its latest annual tin use and recycling survey, carried out since 2005 as part of the ITRI Sustainability Project. Information from this unique and comprehensive study is based on the combination of published statistics and expert estimates, as well as a large direct industry survey of 150 individual downstream users on their activities in 2010 and 2011.
Key findings in the latest report are:
• World tin use in 2010 amounted to 362,000 tonnes, slightly higher than the provisional estimate we published early last year. Preliminary data suggests that last year’s total dipped by 0.7% to just under 360,000 tonnes.
• The share of the market accounted for by solders has declined from a peak of over 54% in 2007 to a little under 52% in 2011. The decline may reflect the sluggish performance of the world electronics industry last year and also a trend towards products and assembly techniques involving smaller quantities of solder.
• Other than the temporary cyclical dip in 2009, global tin use in tinplate has been remarkably stable at about 60,000 tpy throughout the whole period in which ITRI has published its annual tin use reports.
• The tin chemicals business has been the strongest major application in the last two years, and is estimated to have accounted for over 15% of total refined tin use for the first time in 2011.
• China accounted for an estimated 43% of global tin use in 2011 and used around five times as much tin metal as both of the next largest national markets – the USA and Japan.
• The Recycling Input Rate (RIR) for tin in 2010 is estimated to be 31.6%. This takes into account use of both secondary refined tin metal and scrap and secondary alloys. Total use of tin in secondary materials other than refined metal in 2010 amounted to about 74,000 tonnes.
• For the first time ever, survey respondents were asked to provide information on the level of refined metal stocks held. Typically companies were holding stocks equivalent to 3 – 5 weeks’ supply at the end of 2010, which implies that the world total of stocks held by tin users, was around 30,000 tonnes.
• Despite the slight slowdown in China’s economic growth rate and the serious debt problems affecting several southern European countries, ITRI believes it is reasonable to expect an increase in world refined tin use to some 365,000 tonnes in 2012.
