SMM Analysis: SHFE Tin Lost 17% in May, and SHFE/LME Tin Price Ratio Narrowed

SHANGHAI, May 19 (SMM) -  Since May 5, SHFE tin has been moving all the way down, except for a rise on May 16. SHFE tin recorded a decline of 17% in 10 trading days, and hit a new low of 270,630 yuan/mt since November 2021 on May 18. LME tin also fell, but its decline was smaller than that of SHFE tin. As of about 18:00 CST, LME tin dropped 0.95%.  In the spot market, The average spot price of SMM1# tin was 287,500 yuan/mt yesterday, down 2.87% from the previous day. Since around mid-April, the SMM1# tin prices have shown a downward trend.
 There were still limited quotations of Yunxi brand tin, while premiums of imported products were little changed. Under the impact of cheaper imported products, offers of domestic non-deliverable brands were continuously lowered.
 Due to shrinking SHFE/LME tin price ratio, import profit of refined tin declined. As of yesterday afternoon, the SHFE/LME tin price ratio stood at 8.17, while import profit narrowed to 3,852.6 yuan/mt against the SHFE 2206 tin contract. If the trend continues, import window will gradually narrow. SMM expects SHFE tin to move sideways in the near future.