Yunnan Tin, China’s main tin producer, will lose about 3,000 tonnes production in total in July-August due to a scheduled maintenance shutdown of its main Gejiu smelter, Reuters reported. Separately, its joint venture company, Singapore Tin Industries Pte Ltd, suspended its refinery in the city state for a month due to management issues, which it hopes to resolve soon.
“There are internal issues which will be resolved soon. We are reorganising. We don’t have any problems with getting raw materials,” company director Petrus Tjandra told Reuters. Tjandra declined to elaborate on the nature of the management issues but said the company had also shut its smelter on Indonesia’s main producing island of Bangka, which it jointly owns with local firm PT Bangka Global Mandiri Internasional.
Yunnan Tin plans to produce 60,000-70,000 tonnes of refined tin this year but the repair works were expected to cut output. “Prices of raw materials such as ores and coal are high. Therefore, we want to do repairs in July and August,” a company director said. The director said the firm had not decided whether to resume full operations after repairs are completed in September as demand for tin had declined in China.
YTC produced 61,129 tonnes of refined tin in 2007, of which 2,914 tonnes came from the Singapore refinery. The new BGMI plant in Indonesia is the largest capacity independent smelter in Bangka, but has reportedly been unable to secure enough tin concentrates to operate.
