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Indonesia should halt tin shipments: Governor
Tin smelters in Indonesia, the worldâs largest exporter, should ban shipments to support prices, Bangka Belitung province Governor Rustam Effendi said
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T
in smelters in Indonesia, the world's largest exporter, should ban shipments to support prices, Bangka Belitung province Governor Rustam Effendi said.
Officials from Bangka, which accounts for about 90 percent of the country's tin output, would meet with producers soon to discuss a stoppage, Effendi told reporters in Pangkalpinang Thursday. The smelters last halted shipments to reverse a slump in prices in the final quarter of 2011.
Tin slumped 9 percent on the London Metal Exchange this year as supplies increased even after Indonesia tightened rules on exports. The glut will persist through 2016, with rising shipments from Myanmar and elsewhere thwarting Indonesia's efforts to raise prices, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. The producers had yet to receive an invitation from Effendi for talks, the Association of Indonesian Tin Exporters said.
'A moratorium like that needs cooperation from all smelters,' Jabin Sufianto, chairman of the association, said in a text message Thursday as reported by Bloomberg. 'With tighter checking on the origin of the goods and more attention to tin trading regulations, export volumes should decline automatically.'
Indonesia toughened rules on tin trading last year to boost exports of higher-value products and challenge the role of the London Metal Exchange as a price setter, while smelters restrained sales in an attempt to counter declining prices. New standards for packaging, labeling, size and shape of exports were implemented from Nov. 1 to further tighten controls. (***)
