SHANGHAI, Sep. 15 -- China Tin Group Co., the country’s second-largest maker, has started to reduce production in order to meet local government energy-saving targets, said an analyst with Shanghai Metals Market.

The company has suspended a third of capacity at its 18,000 metric-ton smelter in Laibin city in Guangxi, said Wu Xiaofeng, who had spoken to company executives. The plant represents 72 percent of the group’s capacity, she said in a phone interview from Shanghai. Calls to phone numbers listed on the company website were not answered.

China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tin, is seeking to curb energy use. The Guangxi region in the south of the country has already forced aluminum producers to suspend about 250,000 tons of capacity, according to CRU International Ltd. Tin, used in packaging and soldering, has advanced 31 percent this year and is the best performer among six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.

SMM has published prices of cash metal in Shanghai for more than a decade and issues research and analysis on the local market. Wu said the executives she spoke to couldn’t say how long the production cut would last.

The country increased tin production by 15 percent to 83,600 tons in the first eight months, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. A group of officials from 13 central government bodies had started visiting 18 provinces and regions to ensure local governments had eliminated outdated capacity as ordered and controlled energy-intensive industries, the National Development and Reform Commission said Aug. 30.

Spot tin traded at 146,500 yuan ($21,714) to 148,500 yuan a ton on the Changjiang Nonferrous Metals Market in Shanghai today, up from 146,000 yuan to 148,000 yuan a ton yesterday. Tin for three-month delivery fell 0.5 percent to $22,200 a ton in London at 5:18 p.m. in Shanghai.