Japan Tin Inventory Gets Tight

Japanese dealers’ tin ingot inventory gets tight recently when the delivery delays from Indonesia and other producing countries due to bad weather or output reduction. The tight supply is also due to dealers’ lower appetite to build inventory under decreasing market price.

A Japanese importer said most of Indonesian refineries stop the operation while Timah and Koba Tin keep the operation. The source said the refineries could keep stopping the operation unless the market price would recover US$ 18,000 per tonne. Timah also reduce the operation by around 20% due to bad weather since the summer and is expected not to reach 100,000 tonnes of production target in 2008.

London Metal Exchange reported the tin inventory was 3,825 tonnes on Tuesday. The volume was higher than around 3,000 tonnes last week but still the lowest level since January 2007. However, the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market price decreased by US$ 1,100 to US$ 11,900 per tonne on Tuesday. Under the volatile market, the distributors minimize the purchase to avoid the inventory loss risk.