Indonesia tin export surges in December 2011
Thursday, January 12 2012 - 04:05 AM WIB
Indonesia?s tin ingot exports in December 2011 reached 15,102.76 tons, increased sharply by 585.85 percent from previous month of 2,202.04 tons, Trade Ministry data obtained by Petromindo.com shows.
Based on the FOB price, the value of exports in December increased to US$289.81 million from US$43.81 million in November.
The tin ingot exports increased after a number of tin producers in Bangka-Belitung islands resumed exporting the product following a period of export halt aimed to stabilize tin world market price in the previous months.
Toto Rusbianto, Division Head for oil, gas and mineral products at foreign trade of the Trade Ministry, said that some producers decided to resume exports as they needed cash for operational activities and pay workers salary.
Toto said although the tin price was still considerably low, hovering at US$20,000 per ton, tin producers, in particular small and medium scale, decided to resume exporting tin ingot as they were in need of cash for operation.
Most of tin exports were destined for Singapore at volume of 10,111.89 tons followed by Malaysia at 2,670.04 tons and Japan 546.60 tons.
Majority of tin producers in Bangka-Belitung area halted their tins exports since October after tin price dropped to below US$24,000-US$25,000 per ton on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Tin producers in Bangka-Belitung said at that time that they would resume exporting tin products if the price bounced back to US$24,000-US$25,000 per ton or above.
Meanwhile, total tin ingot exports for full year (January-December 2011) reached 96,019.76 tons valued at $2.36 billion, increased 38.11 percent from previous year of 92,486.68 tons, the Trade Ministry data shows.
In 2011, most of tin exports went to Singapore, with a volume of 76,282.34 tons, followed by Malaysia at 9,208.47 tons and Japan 3,253.6 tons.
Editing by Roffie Kurniawan