Preliminary statistics on apparent refined tin consumption released by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) today show a fall in global demand to 86,800 tonnes in January-March, 5% less than in the same period of 2006.
Although demand in Europe and China was reported to be slightly ahead of last year’s levels, the global total was pulled down by large falls in Japan and the USA. In both of these major markets apparent consumption (net imports adjusted for any known changes in stocks) was off by some 20% compared to the first quarter of last year.
It is unlikely that actual tin usage in the US and Japan has declined as much as the WBMS figures indicate, as the fall in imports into these countries partly reflects reduced supplies and unreported de-stocking. ITRI continues to expect that there will be a rise of 2 – 3% in world consumption in 2007, following growth of over 10% in 2006.
