Tin producers open talks on quota system

Tin producers open talks on quota system

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The world's key tin producers opened a
meeting here yesterday to evaluate eight years of joint efforts
in limiting supply to restore tin's luster amid fresh calls by
Indonesia to scrap the quota system.

The eight-member Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC)
kicked off semi-annual talks with discussion of administrative
and financial matters.

"Officials will sift through statistics on production and
export, including evaluation of the global excess stocks on
Tuesday ahead of the three-day meeting of the executive council
from Wednesday," an ATPC official said.

The council is to conduct an annual review the association's
supply rationalization scheme (SRS) and make recommendations for
a ministerial decision on whether to continue or scrap the
system.

ATPC's ministers are to meet in mid-September in Bolivia to
decide on the council's recommendations.

The ATPC -- grouping Australia, Bolivia, China, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Zaire -- implemented the SRS in
1987 hoping to reduce global excess of tin stocks from 76,000
tons to 20,000 tons by end of 1993.

But by end of 1994, rolling stocks remained high at almost
50,000 tons on unofficial estimates.

The SRS sets voluntary limits on the exports of member
countries, which agreed in September last year to reduce exports
to 90,600 tons in 1995, from 98,000 tons a year earlier, to boost
prices.

While Thailand appears to favor continuing another year the
SRS, Indonesia has made fresh calls to join Malaysia in calling
for the scheme to be scrapped, saying a free market might
expedite the recovery of the languishing global tin market.

Industry officials said the quota system had also been
rendered irrelevant as some member countries were producing less
than the quota allocated to them, while others have continued to
exceed the limit.

China, which exceeded by 171 percent its 1993 export quota,
exported 44, 379 tons last year compared with its allocated quota
of 20,000 tons, industry officials said.

But an ATPC source said "the overall stock surplus figures
look better this year than a year ago."

The price of tin on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market ended Monday
eight sen lower at 14.15 ringgit per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from
Friday's close, after hitting a two-year high of above 16.00
ringgit (US$6.40) about six months ago.