TIN INDUSTRY

Evening Star, Issue 23351, 22 August 1939, Page 6

TIN INDUSTRY

BETTER MARKET PRICES Recent developments in the tin industry give grounds for a certain degree of optimism. Stocks are lower, and in the past month or two quotations have been kept at. improved levels World stocks of tin on June 30 showed a decrease of lOiper cent., compared with the figure'at the end of May, and the cash price in London a week earlier reached £230 a ton—the upper limit of the range the buffer stock scheme is designed to preserve. This was the first time that the price had reached £230 since October, 1937, and subsequent quotations have remained very near to that level. The improvement since March is shown by the following monthly averages of cash quotations: April, £2lB 10s 5d a ton; May, £225 14s 9d; June, £227 12s lOd; July, £229 18s 4d. On the formation of the pool last year the price was well below £2OO. During the year ended June 30, the pool accumulated about 15,000 tons of metal, practically all of which it held at the end of the year. The total world stocks, comprising visible supply and smelters’ stocks, amounted at the end of June to 39,387 tons, compared with_ 43,832 tons at the end of May, according to figures released by the International Tin Research and Development Council. This was a decrease of 4,436 tons. World production in May amounted to 9,000 tons, compared with 12,600 tons for May, 1938. This brought the total for five months up to 54,100 tons, as against 70,400 tons last year._ Exports from the signatory in May amounted to 6;933 tons, bringing the over-exports .at the end of the month down t 0.5,020 tons. World apparent consumption in May was estimated at 13.500 tons, compared with 16,500 tons for May last year. The total for the first five months of 1939 was 63,400' tons, against 69,700 tons last year. The average monthly consumption during the first five months of 1939 amounted to 12,680 tons, .compared with a monthly average of 12,000 tons during 1938.