Indonesia’s main private smelters are to stop production until the end of the year, according to Reuters yesterday. “Our miners that supply tin ore have been idle because they can't cover production costs due to falling tin prices,” said Patris Lumumba, director of Bangka-Belitung Tumah Sejahtera, a consortium of seven smelters. The consortium's members have agreed to stop operating until January 2009, he said.
He said the smelters had a total capacity of around 4,000-5,000 tonnes of tin ingot a month, although actual production averaged around 2,000-3,000 tonnes. “We can't process tin slag because it is more costly than processing tin ore. So we only do maintenance work on furnaces,” he said.
Tin ore buying prices in Bangka are reported to have fallen by 50% since July and mine production has also been reduced due to the absence of workers for religious holidays. The onset of the monsoon season from next month will also limit mining activity into the first quarter of next year.
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