Indonesia Timah Sees Its Average Tin Price Steady Around $24,000/Ton This Year

JAKARTA, Aug. 25 (Dow Jones) -- Indonesia's state-owned tin miner PT Timah (TINS.JK) forecast its average price for refined tin to remain steady around $24,000 a metric ton this year, despite a downside bias on demand due to concerns over the global growth outlook, a senior official at the company said Wednesday.

PT Timah has secured tin supply contracts totaling 26,000 tons for the year, "and there's no indication that buyers will cancel the contracts, unlike [during] the crisis in 2008," Corporate Secretary Abrun Abubakar said.

Abubakar said Timah's revenue rose around 40% in the first six months of the year, as higher prices offset lower sales volume. The company expects to announce its first-half earnings in the coming days.

Timah's refined tin prices averaged $20,477/ton in 2010, 50% higher than the 2009 average price of $13,608 per ton, according to a company filing to the Indonesian stock exchange in March.

Timah, Indonesia's biggest producer of the soldering metal by output, aims to produce between 37,000 tons and 40,000 tons this year. It produced 40,413 tons in 2010.