Yunnan Tin Company expects to produce 60,000 tonnes of tin this year, but will hold back on further increases in production due to concerns about raw material supplies and prices. “We need to secure supplies of raw materials. We also want to control output. If we increase output, world prices will fall,” chairman Xiao Jianming told reporters in Hong Kong today.
According to Reuters, YTC will produce 60,000 tonnes of refined tin this year, including about 7,000 tonnes from its joint-venture plant in Singapore and 53,000 tonnes from plants in Yunnan and Hunan provinces in China. In 2006 combined total production from the Chinese and Singapore operations amounted to 52,399 tonnes. The firm produced about 70 percent of its ore, Xiao said.
The company says it is currently carrying out trial production at a new 18,000 tpy smelter in Indonesia, which is to supply crude tin for refining in Singapore. In a separate story, Reuters reported that the Indonesian operation, PT Bangka Global Mandiri International, had been granted an export licence and was expecting to make its first shipments of tin in December.
