LME WEEK 2021: No respite in sight for acutely tight tin market

Fastmarkets analyst Boris Mikanikrezai and reporter Orla O'Sullivan size up the tin market ahead of LME Week, which begins Monday October 11.

Tin hit an all-time high this year, and was the best performer across the base metals space with a year-to-date gain of nearly 80%. In a context of mixed macrodynamics, the remarkable appreciation of tin prices has primarily been due to extremely bullish supply/demand dynamics.
On the supply side, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted key tin-producing countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, resulting in lockdowns and output curtailments. It has also disrupted concentrate supply, especially from Myanmar, the world's largest producer, where Covid-19 restriction measures have undermined the flow of raw material to Chinese smelters. And in China itself, Yunnan province was impacted earlier this year by a heat wave and energy consumption restrictions, undermining smelting activity.

On the demand side, tin has benefited from firm demand from the electronics industry. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), global semiconductor industry...

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