China’s Yunnan provincial government has announced a second round of stock financing measures to support local producers of non-ferrous metals. The first scheme began in December 2008 and allowed for up to 552,000 tonnes of metals from nine producers to be reserved as collateral for commercial bank loans under-written by the province. The second phase is due to run from 30 April to 31 December this year. No tonnages have been announced, but the list of metals covered (originally copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and tin) has been expanded to include germanium and silicon.
The original scheme covered up to 30,000 tonnes of tin, but ITRI believes that the actual volume involved was about 10,000 tonnes. In the first round only Yunnan Tin was designated as a supplier of tin but in the second phase a statement from the provincial government’s industry and communications committee said that other metal producers in addition to the nine in the first round are allowed to participate, but will be under strict scrutiny in the application process.
