A quarter of Indonesia's tin smelters back a plan to suspend exports and prop up global prices, the chief of an industry body said on Friday, ahead of a vote on the issue targeted next week. Indonesia is the world's top exporter of tin, and the governor of its main producing region of Bangka-Belitung is spearheading an attempt to support London prices of the metal that are trading near 2-1/2 year lows.
"As of now, it is fifty-fifty," said Jabin Sufianto, president of the Indonesian Association of Tin Exporters (AETI), which groups 19 tin smelters with an annual capacity of around 30,000 tonnes. Jabin told Reuters he expected to set a meeting next Tuesday for members to vote on the plan after discussing arguments for and against a moratorium.
"Of course we need PT Timah onboard," he added, referring to Indonesia's biggest tin miner, state-owned PT Timah. An official of PT Timah this week told Reuters the firm would not back a moratorium, as the move was likely to be frustrated by the action of global market forces on the prices of all commodities.
Sufianto said tin smelters were seeking prices of between $19,500 and $20,000 a tonne, given a recent fall in crude oil prices. Tin hit lows of $17,445 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME) this week, a level not seen since August 2012. The recent slide resulted from slacker demand from top buyer China ahead of holidays for the Lunar New Year, which begins next week, with speculators and a global sell-off of commodities having weighed on prices, Sufianto added. Indonesia has had little success over the years from several attempts to limit supplies and support prices, with many traders sceptical about the chances for the latest plan to halt exports.