China's entry into ATPC sends tin prices up<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Tin prices rose yesterday on the local tin
\nmarket on news that China, the world's largest tin producer, had
\nsigned up in Bangkok to join a global pact as its eighth member,
\ntraders said.<\/p>\n
The Kuala Lumpur Tin Market shot up seven cents to close at
\n14.43 ringgit (US$5.77) from 14.36 ringgit a day earlier.<\/p>\n
China formally signed an agreement yesterday at the Thai
\nforeign ministry to join the 10-year-old Association of Tin
\nProducing Countries (ATPC) that groups Australia, Bolivia,
\nIndonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Zaire.<\/p>\n
Jumrus Atikul, the executive secretary of the Kuala Lumpur-
\nbased ATPC, said China's membership of the ATPC was important in
\nenhancing the effectiveness of the association's supply
\nrationalization scheme (SRS) aimed at improving prices.<\/p>\n
\"China's membership is expected to expedite this process. The
\nsignificance of its membership is underlined by the fact that it
\nis currently the world's largest supplier,\" Atikul said.<\/p>\n
Traders said China's decision to join the ATPC raised hopes
\nthat tin, which had long been in the doldrums largely due to
\noversupply, could very soon regain its luster.<\/p>\n
Tin prices had peaked at 29.15 ringgit a kilogram (2.2 pounds)
\nin the mid 1980s before the tin market crashed in October 1985.
\nPrices have remained low over the past five years due to high
\nexcess stocks and poor demand.<\/p>\n
Stocks<\/p>\n
The global overhang of stocks stood at 39,700 tons at the end
\nof July last year, ATPC said.<\/p>\n
The ATPC, which accounts for 67 percent of the world's supply
\nof tin, launched the SRS in 1987 to try to normalize the market
\nand bolster prices.<\/p>\n
China and Brazil, which although not yet a member but
\ncooperating fully with the ATPC in the scheme -- account for
\nanother 13 percent of global supply.<\/p>\n
\"China's entry will lend new credibility to the ATPC as an
\norganization that has more clout to sway world tin markets and
\ncan change the world demand-supply equation for the metal,\" said
\nlocal commodities analyst T.L. Kwong.<\/p>\n
A Thai foreign ministry official said in Bangkok Thursday that
\n\"it was quite difficult to get China to join. But finally they
\nsaw the advantage of being in.\"<\/p>\n
China, after being courted for several years, had in October
\n1991 pledged to join the ATPC, but \"the restructuring of the
\nmanagement system in Beijing\" had delayed the process, ATPC
\nofficials said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/chinas-entry-into-atpc-sends-tin-prices-up-1447899208",
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