Standard Bank Group, Africa's largest lender by assets, raised its forecast for tin prices this year on lower-than-expected production in Indonesia and Peru. | |
| The price for immediate delivery would average $14,180 a tonne this year, 2.3 per cent higher than an earlier forecast, the bank said in a monthly report sent by e-mail recently. The contract last traded at $14,515 and averaged $13,764 this year. |
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| "Some surprise supply disruptions, together with signs of stronger demand, are now creating a case for another rally,'' the bank said in the report. |
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| The three-month contract on tin, the least traded metal on the London Metal Exchange (LME), has risen 29 per cent this year, more than aluminium, copper and nickel. Profit has risen at miners, including Jakarta-based PT Timah, which said second-quarter net soared 35 times. |
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| Consumption would expand 4.1 per cent, driven by growth in China, the world's largest user and producer of the metal, the bank said. Output will be 372,500 tonnes this year, 1.6 per cent below an earlier forecast, it said. That will widen this year's deficit to 18,000 tonnes, from 2,000 tonnes last year, it added. |
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| Minsur, the world's third-largest producer of tin, lost around 2,000 tonnes of production, the bank estimated, after the Lima-based company closed down its smelter in Pisco for as many as 20 days because of an earthquake that hit the town. |
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| PT Timah, the world's No 2, will reduce second-half output by around 50 per cent from the first half, the bank said. China's Yunnan Tin Co is the world's largest tin producer, based on 2006 output. |
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| Tin for delivery in three months on the LME rose $200, or 1.4 per cent, to $14,800 a tonne as of 10:14 am in London. It reached $17,050 a tonne on August 7, the highest since at least 1989. |
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