Malaysia Smelting Corp (MSC) has denied reports that its tin shipments are delayed, but sources have been telling Fastmarkets for weeks that MSC not only has issues delivering metal it has refined but a more fundamental problem of having almost no tin concentrate to refine.
Some of these supply-side sources say MSC's concentrate shortages will be an ongoing problem, predicting that reduced output from the world's third-biggest supplier of refined tin will result in rising prices - especially since it compounds other concentrate shortages worldwide, recently reported by Fastmarkets.Sources who said they witnessed MSC's Butterworth smelter "almost empty" in recent months told Fastmarkets they had no reason to believe that the problem had been solved following a statement the company released on Tuesday June 11. MSC described as "inaccurate" a June 10 article that said it was behind on shipments since February and had told customers they would have to wait up to three weeks, rather than the usual few days for tin ingot. Customers of the Kuala Lumpur-based company told Fastmarkets its shipments were delayed by up to four weeks."Initial findings indicate that delivery of shipments to our customers are on schedule and our...