Tin Sector May Register Slower Growth
By Zaidi Isham Ismail
- Business Times, New Straits Times 13th May, 2003

Malaysia's tin industry is expected to register a slower growth of about 3 per cent this year from last year's 4.5% per cent due mainly to the US-led war on Iraq and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

Tin Industry (Research and Development) Board chairman Datuk Mohd Ajib Anuar said the sector could have matched last year's growth if it had not been for the two occurrences.

"And I expect the prices to strengthen slightly from the current US$4,700 (US$1=RM3.80) a tonne because new uses of the metal are continuously being developed as we speak," Mohd Ajib said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Mohd Ajib had earlier hosted a forum on tin technology together with UK-based TinTechnology Ltd. Also present were Tin Technology managing director David Bishop and its research director Dr Ian McGill.

Malaysia was the world's biggest producer of tin in the early 1970s, churning out 74,000 tonnes a year.

Currently Malaysia only produces 5,000 tonnes, or 1.8 per cent of global output of 270,000 tonnes, of which more than 50 percent is produced by China followed by Indonesia (30 per cent) and Peru (13 per cent).

Mohd Ajib said the industry is thriving because at present, tin-based material being is applied in a multitude of industrial and commercial uses.

New uses include in the electrical and electronics sector which is shifting from using poisonous lead to tin-based materials in their soldering operations to make various electrical equipment.

"Already big electronics companies such as NEC, Nokia, Sony, Phillips, Hitachi, Motorola and Panasonic are already embracing tin in their soldering operations to produce lead-free electrical equipment.

"Japanese electronics industry in fact is lead-free. This is very encouraging because legislation on the issue will only be passed in 2006" said Mohd Ajib, who is also Malaysia Smelting Corp Bhd's group chief executive officer and executive director.

The electrical and electronics equipment include mobile phones, personal computers, walkmans, refrigerators and mini disc players.

Mohd Ajib said tin-based material are also used to develop "green bullets" to be used at firing ranges because leaded bullets are known to cause damage to the environment. Other new uses includes tinplates which is superior over aluminium as a packaging material, such as for canned products. Tin is also being developed as a smoke suppressant, replacing leaded wheel weights in the automotive sectors and others.

"The sector is not expected to be gloomy for long because new uses will spark continuous demand on this mineral this year and in the future.

"The industry is not robust as it was three decades ago simply because the Government chose to freeze the leasing permit. Malaysia which has over 40 active tin mining units, especially in Perak, still has unlimited supply of tin concentrates which it chose not to exploit," Mohd Ajib said.

"However the stability of tin prices very much hinges on the cooperation of the world's top two tin producers -China and Indonesia - to rationalize production and not over produce." Malaysia's tin industry collapsed in 1985 due to over production.

"Dwindling global tin stockpile will also be a factor for prices to firm up. Currently stockpile is only at
100, 000 tonnes of which 50,000 tonnes is kept by the US.

Malaysia will sign a memorandum of understanding in Kuala Lumpur today on closer collaboration in research and development, marketing and other aspects of the commodity.

With the signing, Malaysia will now become part of the global tin umbrella body with access to over 40,000 research reports gathered for the past 70 years and over a million pounds of research grants provided by the members.

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