Indonesia poised to be world's top tin supplier<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Indonesia could become the world's
\nlargest supplier of tin if dominant producer China retains its
\ncurrent output and Peru's production stabilizes, an executive
\nwith Malaysia's biggest tin smelter said yesterday.<\/p>\n
"Indonesia has become one the world's lowest cost producers
\nand has boosted its production significantly in recent years,"
\nMalaysia Smelting Corp Bhd commercial general manager Ong Kee
\nBeng told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
He said Indonesia's top miner, PT Timah, had expanded
\naggressively in recent years and planned further growth.<\/p>\n
"If all these plans are realized, Indonesia could overtake
\nChina to become the biggest tin producer in the world," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
"We shop all around for tin and we know what we're talking
\nabout," he said.<\/p>\n
Ong told a tin conference in Ipoh on Thursday that Indonesia,
\nlike China, would have "the ability to cause an oversupply of
\nmetal and disrupt the market" if it became top tin producer.<\/p>\n
Indonesia produced 52,000 tons of tin in 1997, just under
\nChina's 54,000 tons. Ong said Indonesian output was projected to
\nreach 65,000 tons by 2007 while China's was expected to stabilize
\nat 55,000.<\/p>\n
"Much of China's production is still shrouded in mystery and
\nreliable statistics are difficult to obtain, but its tin exports
\nhave been a big destabilization factor in the market," Ong told
\nthe conference.<\/p>\n
China joined the Association of Tin Producing Countries in
\n1994, but backed out when it could not keep exports within the
\ngrouping's quota.<\/p>\n
In the case of Peru, Ong said its main miner, Minsur, operates
\n"probably the single biggest mine in the world".<\/p>\n
"Its (Peru's) production is expected to rise but at a slower
\npace for the next 10 years and is expected to stabilize at around
\n38,000 tons per year," Ong told the conference.<\/p>\n
Brazil and Bolivia, two other major tin producers, have seen a
\nslowdown since last year, with output stabilizing at 20,000 and
\n14,000 tons respectively since 1996, said Ong.<\/p>\n
He said other than the mines, the United States' Defense
\nLogistics Agency also had about 11,000 tons of mostly old tin in
\nits stock which it could sell at a discount.<\/p>\n
Ong said global production was expected to climb steadily to
\n226,000 tons by 2007 from 203,000 projected for 1998.<\/p>\n
He said the largest users of tin were expected to remain
\nAsians.<\/p>\n
China, besides being the largest producer, was also the
\nlargest tin consumer in Asia and may overtake United States as
\nthe world's biggest user of the metal over the next two decades,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
He told the conference that world consumption of tin was
\nexpected to grow at a compounded rate of 2.5 percent a year over
\nthe next decade, with tinplate being the main product of the
\nmetal, taking up 30 percent of production.<\/p>",
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