Thursday, April 20, 2006

Tin prices are rising



We have learnt about tin-mining ( bijih-timah in Malay) in our history books. Klang Valley and Kinta Valley were once known throughout the world as the biggest producers of tin in the world.

Remember Yap Ah Loy, the most famous Chinese Kapitan of Kuala Lumpur? Larut Wars? A bit of history lesson here.
Also, in the Wizard of Oz, the remember Tin Man?

Over the years, the supply of tin has dwindled (decreased) drastically as these resources ran out of supply. Many tin mines have been closed down and some had been turned into a theme park, for example, Mines Wonderland at Serdang. It used to be a tin mine.

Tin is a factor of production (land) as it is a mineral.

However, world tin prices this year are rising, it has gone up by more than 50% since last year.

The Star reported:

Tin prices rose to US$9,290 a tonne, up US$280 from US$9,010 on Tuesday, in tandem with the huge rise on the London Metal Exchange (LME) after an extended weekend.

In the past six months, tin prices have risen more than 50% from US$6,000 in the fourth quarter last year,'' an institutional dealer told StarBiz.

What could be the reason or reasons for the price rise?

Here's the link from the Star
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/4/20/business/14008504&sec=business


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

why the price is rising?as you taught us Mr Wilson,resource getting lower,price getting higher...
Probably the resource for tin-mining are depleting day by day,and the demand is getting high,so the price will also rise

Anonymous said...

kekurangan bijih timah, cause the price of bijih timah rise lo.. ~^.^~
oo.. too smart..!!




/run..............!

Wizzerd said...

anonymous,
High price of certain item is a result of the interaction between market demand and the market supply in the tin market. Yes, depletion in tin supply might be a factor, but the if the world demand of tin is rising, this could lead to a rise in the equilibrium price.Give it a thought, why is the demand of tin rising? Having said so, the supply of tin is only depleting in Malaysia, the same cannot be said in other parts of the world.

Wizzerd said...

greenapple,
Kekurangan(scarcity) is indeed a factor but that only happens in Malaysia because we have been mining tin deposits since the 1850s.Increase in price could also be due to the rise in the world demand.
Think about world oil prices, high demand, low supply--that's why we are paying RM1.92 per liter.

Anonymous said...

wizzerd,
oic...