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Tin Demand to Surge on Recovery, Timah’s Usman Says
By resourceINTEL · October 1, 2009 · 7:13 am · Leave a Comment
Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Global tin demand may climb about 6.7 percent next year as a recovery in the world economy boosts consumption of the metal used for soldering and making cans, according to PT Timah, the world’s second-largest producer.
Worldwide consumption may jump to 320,000 metric tons in 2010 compared with about 300,000 tons this year, President Director Wachid Usman said in an interview in Jakarta. “Demand will be supported by China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan,” said Usman, who’s been with Pangkalpinang, Indonesia-based Timah since 1982.
Commodity prices including copper and crude oil have surged this year as trillions of dollars of government stimulus spending helped to pull the global economy out of the deepest recession since the 1930s. Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of tin, which has risen 39 percent this year on the London Metal Exchange.
The global tin market will “remain well-supported by expectations of a demand-side recovery, particularly in China,” Toby Hassall, an analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty, said today by phone from Sydney.
Tin for three-month delivery in London closed yesterday at $14,900 a ton after advancing to $15,200 a ton, the highest level since Aug. 14. Prices slumped 35 percent last year as the credit crunch curbed lending and consumption declined.
U.S. Economy
“The U.S. economy is also recovering from the crisis that dragged consumption and prices down last year and earlier this year,” Usman said yesterday. Global tin consumption in 2007 was 356,000 tons, according to data on Timah’s Web site…read more at the Bloomberg
