The cash price for tin and its benchmark spread are receiving a boost from a short-term lack of supply on the London Metal Exchange, the question is when and how stocks on the exchange will return?
The LME cash contract was at $23,120 per tonne on January 26 and traded nearly $300 above its three-month delivery counterpart, which went as high as $22,740 per tonne the same day, with both prices at near seven-year highs.This comes at a time when exchange stocks for the metal, used mostly as a soldering component in electronic goods, have slumped to an eight-month low - and close to their lowest since 1989 - at just over 1,000 tonnes.Demand for the metal remains stable, however, a less-globalized semiconductor production process due to international trade tensions means supply hitches as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 have had an outsized effect on the market, sources told Fastmarkets."The tight global market and low stocks are a big factor, not just on the LME but in terms of what traders and producers have available," head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading, Tom Mulqueen,...