Tin Market Update (April 10, 2013)

Tin prices have declined slightly in the past month, with three-month tin now trading around $23,020 per metric ton (MT) on the London Metal Exchange (LME), down from $23,750 on March 5, according to data from Metal-Pages.

LME tin inventories currently stand at 14,415 MT, up from 13,485 MT a month ago, according to exchange data. However, cancelled warrants, or orders to remove tin from LME stockpiles, have also risen sharply, from 2,005 MT a month ago to 3,585 MT today.

Prices for tin and other base metals have been under pressure due to recent reports indicating weakness in the global economic recovery. These factors include disappointing purchasing managers’ index data in recent days from the US, China and the Eurozone, according to the April 3 Shanghai Metal Market morning update.

Tin prices rose 22 percent in 2012, the most compared to any other metal on the LME, according to Bloomberg. And despite a relatively slow start to 2013, prices could find support from a higher Indonesian tin-purity standard, which comes into effect in July. The new benchmark could result in a 24-percent drop in Indonesian tin shipments this year, according to a February 11 Bloomberg article, as the country’s smelters upgrade their operations to meet it.