RI'S TIN INGOT EXPORTS FALL STEEPLY

Jakarta, Nov 11 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's tin ingot exports tumbled 59.64 percent to 4,439.39 tons in October from 11,000 tons in September 2008, a senior trade official said.
"The prices of all mining products are declining. We are waiting for what will happen next month. Exporters are still waiting for the prices to improve," director for industrial and mining product export affairs of the Trade Ministry, Hartojo Agus Tjahjono, said through an SMS message from India on Tuesday.
He said that the value of tin bar exports last October was recorded at US$64,222,053. Based on a report by a surveyor, the volume of tin ingot exports from January to October 2008 stood at 79,974.84 tons valued at US$1,514,994,787.73.
The Trade Ministry official said that the government was planning to discuss tin ingot exports with the people of Bangka and Belitung, two tin producer islands in Sumatra, next Sunday (November 16.).
Secretary of the Indonesian Tin Producers Association (AITI) Hutomo Dharma Sutomo said the drop in the tin price was due to the decline in the demand for the mining commodity.
The declining demand has caused the price of the commodity to fall to US$18,000 per metric ton (MT). Previously, the price of tin ingot was recorded at US$23,000 per metric ton.
"As a result, the production is also declining," Hutomo said adding that he was unable to predict the export performance next year.
The price of tin ingot began to be skyrocketing when the government introduced a regulation on tin ingot export in February 2007. The price of tin ingot before the trade minister issued the regulation was US$9,000 per ton.
The regulation provided no restrictions in tin exports but stipulated that the commodity could only be authorized exporters with certain conditions.
Among the conditions is that the tin content should reach 99.85 percent and before being exported it should be verified in the first place. ***2***