Perfect storm24 Nov 2017 16:15
Today 22:50KUALA LUMPUR: Casts as a sunset industry in Malaysia, the yet still strong appetite for tin amid a shortage in global supply, spells a bright outlook for the metal in the near term.
According to the Malaysian Chamber of Mines executive director, Muhamad Nor Muhamad, global tin consumption stands at around 362,000 tonnes annually while production remains at some 340,000 tonnes per year..
�As no new major tin mines are likely to be opened in the near future, this shortage of supply will persist for quite some time. Hence, the price of tin will continue to remain strong going forward,� he told Bernama.
As of today, tin price stands at US$19,720 a tonne on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) while that of the London Metal Exchange (LME), the global trendsetter for the metal�s price, saw overnight trading at US$19,845 per tonne.
After the crash of 1985 which saw the tin price falling by more than 50%, the global demand for tin has been growing steadily from an annual average of 218,600 tonnes in the 1980s to 239,600 tonnes in 1990s and 314,500 tonnes in the 2000s.
The metal�s price plunged from US$17,000 per tonne in June 1985 to a 10-year low of US$5,780 in March 1986.
Global tin supply has also increased in tandem with demand, from an annual average of 224,800 tonnes in the 1980s to 233,400 tonnes in the 1990s and 309,000 in the 2000s.
As of 2015, Muhamad Nor said China continued to be the world�s largest tin producer, with an annual output of 146,600 tonnes, followed by Indonesia (68,400 tonnes), Brazil (25,500 tonnes), Bolivia (20,135 tonnes), Peru (19,511 tonnes) and Australia (7,158 tonnes).
At the same time, the world�s largest tin producer is also the biggest user of the commodity, consuming 175,842 tonnes annually, followed by the United States (31,354 tonnes), Japan (26,762 tonnes), Germany (17,931 tonnes), South Korea (13,091 tonnes) and India (8,657 tonnes).
As for Malaysia, he said the tin industry played an important role to the economy, contributing some RM250mil to the country�s gross domestic product (GDP), besides providing a significant number of employment to locals, both directly and indirectly.
He said the country produced 4,180 tonnes of tin concentrates last year from the total of 35 tin mines operating throughout the nation, namely in the states of Perak, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Kedah.
In comparison to the scenario of 1979, at a time when tin industry was still a major contributor to the Malaysian economy, the amount of tin concentrates produced then at 63,000 tonnes accounted for 31% of world�s output with the industry employing more than 41,000 people.
After the closure of Escoy Smelting Sdn Bhd in 1998, Malaysia Smelting Corp
image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png
Bhd (MSC) was Malaysia�s sole integrated tin producer and operator of the country�