Tin association pressures PT Timah to stop exports to boost price
Friday, November 25 2011 - 03:16 AM WIB
Twenty-six companies agreed to keep a spot export ban until the year-end at a meeting Wednesday, Murod said in an interview. Timah and PT Koba Tin were not present, he said.
Timah will review the association?s request, and discuss it internally and with customers, said Corporate Secretary Abrun Abubakar.
?We?ll ask Timah to stop all shipments because if they?re still exporting, even if it?s only to their contracted buyers, the ban won?t be effective in increasing the price,? said Murod.
Almost 30 smelters from Indonesia, which represents about 40 percent of global exports, agreed this month to extend their hMt on spot shipments to push the global price to US$25,000 a metric ton. The ban started Oct. 1. Timah was allowed to meet contractual orders while halting spot sales, Eko Maulana Au, provincial governor of Bangka Belitung, said earlier.
Tin for three-month deliver climbed as much as 2 percent to $20,602 a ton on the London Metal Exchange Thursday before trading at $20,500 at 5:55 p.m. in Singapore. The price slumped 24 percent this year on concern that the worsening European debt crisis would hurt the global economy and curb demand.
Consumers complained about a shortage at a weekend gathering between the association and at least 10 buyers from Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, according to Murod. Stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the LME dropped more than 40 percent in the past three months to the lowest in a year.
The association is scheduled to meet buyers today (Friday) in Singapore to discuss contracts and prices for shipments in 2012, said Ismiyardi, head of the provincial parliament. The participants include companies from the US, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the UK, Philippines and Taiwan, he said. (*)