Tin hit 20 month high - $19,905/t in early UK trading

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Tin hit a 20-month high on Wednesday as inventories dwindled, fuelling worries about shortages, and nickel struggled to extend gains as investors digested news about more mine suspensions in top ore exporter the Philippines.

Falling shipments from top tin exporter Indonesia and predictions a surge in mining in Myanmar is tapering off has prompted a scramble for the metal mainly used to make solder for the electronics industry .

"On-warrant" tin inventories in warehouses approved by the London Metal Exchange , metal not earmarked for delivery from warehouses and available to investors, dropped to 1,625 tonnes, the lowest since at least 1999, LME data showed.

Benchmark tin prices on the LME rose 0.9 percent to $19,905 a tonne by 1000 GMT after touching $19,950, the strongest since January 2015.

Tin is the second best performing LME metal this year behind zinc with gains of 37 percent.

One analyst, however, said the rally may be capped if inventories not in exchange-regulated warehouses appeared on the market.

"There is a good fundamental reason why the tin price has risen this year, but the market may not be as tight as it would appear from the exchange data," said Caroline Bain, senior commodities economist at Capital Economics.

"I suspect that there is more metal out there than we can see on the exchanges. Certainly last time the tin price had a big rally, stocks started to fill up again."