Government plans to cut tin output to support price

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is drafting a new regulation that would cut down the country?s tin output in a bid to help revive price of the commodity, reports said on Thursday.

Director General of Mineral and Coal at the ministry, R. Sukhyar said that under the plan, which has yet to be discussed with the industry players, tin output will be cut down to around 40,000 tons per year, from the average of 90,000 tons per year during the past several years. The government will distribute production quota to each industry players.

Sukhyar said that being the world?s largest tin producing country, the planned production cut should help shore up tin price in the international market.

Tin fell by 2.48 percent on Wednesday to US$19,650 per ton on the London Metal Exchange, the lowest level this year, as September inflation in China was higher than expected. (*)