Timah sees lower exports, higher revenue

Indonesia's Timah , the world's largest integrated tin miner, expects a slight decline in sales this year, but revenue could rise on higher tin prices.

Production and sales of refined tin were forecast to reach 40,000 tonnes in 2011, down slightly from 40,413 tonnes in 2010 due to tough competition from illegal miners in the main producing island of Bangka and Belitung, Chief Executive Wachid Usman was quoted as saying.

"(But) with an increase in prices, revenue is likely to rise as well as profits," said Usman.
Timah told Reuters in February that the tin price in 2011 will be around $25,000 to $30,000 per tonne.


Benchmark tin on the London Metal Exchange was at around $27,00 a tonne, off a six-month low around $24,000 seen in June, when worries about a growth slowdown and European sovereign debt sparked selling.

Tin struck a record-high of around $33,000 in April.

The country's refined tin exports rose 35.4 percent in June from the year-ago period, as improving weather boosted mining and producers cashed in on a global price recovery to boost shipments, industry sources said this week.

Small smelters on Bangka and Belitung islands off Sumatra depend on small-scale traditional miners for about 80 percent of their ore supply.

The government brought in a new mining law in 2009 that restricts the operation of small-scale miners, who tend to operate in an undisciplined way, causing damage to the environment, and do not pay royalties. Source: Reuters