PT Timah sets lower output of tin ingots

PT Timah sets lower output of tin ingots

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Indonesia's PT Tambang Timah plans to produce around 33,000-36,000 metric tons of tin ingots in 2001, compared with 35,000 tons in 2000, a company official told Dow Jones Newswires on Monday.

A downward trend in production is possible because the world tin price "has been declining for the last three, four years," said the company's corporate secretary, Prasetyo Saksono.

Saksono said that last year, the price of tin hit $5,000/ton, its lowest level in the past few years.

At 1022 GMT, benchmark three-month tin futures on the London Metal Exchange was quoted at $5,165/ton.

Saksono said Timah will release its full-year operation results Tuesday.

The world's single largest tin producer's production capacity is 45,000 tons a year.

Saksono said the company will continue suspension of its exploratory activities for gold in the eastern and western parts of Kalimantan for at least three months for security reasons.

The company started its exploration mostly for gold in Kalimantan in 1996, but suspended all activities in May 1999 as a result of ethnic clashes between indigenous Dayaks and minority Madurese.

Saksono said when the suspension occurred, some projects were already in an advanced process. However, he couldn't immediately provide the amount the company has invested in the projects.

The conflict followed the Indonesian government's relocation program for the Madurese to the region, which lasted from the 1960s until last year. The government's effort was intended to relieve overcrowding on Madura.

The Dayaks claim the Madurese immigrants pushed them off their traditional lands and stole their jobs in the region's gold, tin and copper mines. They also complain of receiving an inferior education.

In the most recent violence, still ongoing, Indonesian government officials were quoted in news reports as saying the body count from eight days of killing stood at 270, nearly all Madurese.