Export suspension won?t provide much help to tin price

The Bangka Belitung administration?s plan to temporarily halt tin exports will not guarantee an increase in the commodity?s prices, according to the Indonesian Association of Tin Exporters (AETI).

AETI President Jabin Sufianto said on Friday as reported by The Jakarta Post that while his association generally supported the planned measure, he was not sure that the measure would be able to prop up prices as the sluggish market was not only caused by oversupply, but also by other factors.

?We can help prevent tin prices from continuing to slump, but many other factors will also eventually determine the prices," he told The Jakarta.

On Thursday, Bangka Belitung (Babel) Governor Rustam Effendi said that he planned to halt tin exports from Babel by end of this year or early next year to help lift the country?s tin prices. ?We will [if needed] immediately issue a moratorium regulation to raise tin prices. We expect that it can be carried out next month or in early 2015," he said.

Rustam said that he would discuss the matter with tin smelters in Babel, adding that the measure was needed to halt the economic downturn in the province. Babel, whose economy is heavy reliant on tin production, grew by just 4.6 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the third quarter of this year, lower than the national average of 5.01 percent, according to data from Bank Indonesia (BI).

The province?s two major islands Bangka and Belitung make up 90 percent of around 100,000 tons of refined tin exported annually from the country which is the world?s second-largest tin producer after China. According to data from the AETI, Indonesia has produced 66,000 tons of tin as of October this year, with 95 percent of it being exported.

Tin prices had slumped 9 percent on the London Metal Exchange this. year as supplies increased despite In-donesia tightening rules on exports, Macquarie Group Ltd. noted. ?The glut will persist through 2016, with. rising shipments from Myanmar and elsewhere thwarting Indonesia?s ef-forts to raise prices," Macquarie Group wrote, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Indonesia has, for a year now, required all tin ingot shipments to trade via the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX) before being exported, a move aimed at raising the country?s tin prices. (*)