Tin prices are strengthening, due in part to rising demand from alloy industries.
The Business Standard reports that while tin prices are increasing, copper continues its decline due to “reduced offtake from industrial users.”
We reported last month that tin, along with zinc, had been outperforming other base metals this year.
Our own Raul de Frutos wrote: “These two metals have risen on expectations of supply constraints. In the case of zinc, it’s about the number of key larger-scale mine shutdowns over the past months. Meanwhile, tin’s performance comes largely on the back of low first-quarter exports from Indonesia.”
He continued that Indonesian tin exports decreased 50% in the first quarter this year, mostly as the result of new government environmental regulations going into effect that require smelters to provide new documentation. Supplementing these factors were extreme weather conditions that affected production during Q1 2016.
“After a very weak first quarter, Indonesian tin exports recovered in April, with exports up 36% compared to April 2015. Although many analysts are calling for a come back in exports, a recovery in Q2 was expected, but it remains questionable whether the trend will continue,” de Frutos wrote.