From Resources to Market: The Role and Value of Tin Ingots in the Entire Industry Chain [Indonesia Tin Industry Conference]

At the 2025 Indonesia Mining Conference & Critical Metals Conference - 2025 Southeast Asia Tin Industry Conference, hosted by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (SMM), supported by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a government supporter, and co-organized by the Association of Indonesia Nickel Miners (APNI), the Jakarta Futures Exchange, and China Coal Resource, Tai Jinqiu, General Manager of Honghe Jucheng Industrial Co., Ltd., shared insights on the topic "From Resources to Markets: The Role and Value of Tin Ingots in the Entire Industry Chain."

2024: Global Refined Tin Capacity

Currently, the global distribution of refined tin capacity is highly concentrated. Asia dominates the global refined tin capacity landscape, with China and Indonesia together accounting for over 65% of the world's total capacity. Global refined tin production in 2024 was 37.2 mt, a decrease of approximately 10,000 mt from 2023. China's total refined tin production in 2024 was 219,000 mt, accounting for 52% of the global total, up 7.4% YoY.

Yunnan, as the core region of China's refined tin industry, contributes over 57.66% of the country's refined tin output.

The presentation also provided an overview of the major importing and exporting countries of refined tin.

Challenges and Pain Points

Unstable Trade Policies and Tariff Barriers: 1. Frequent policy adjustments, 2. Risk of trade frictions.

Volatile Market Prices: 1. Supply-demand imbalance, 2. Influence of financial attributes, 3. Cost transmission pressures.

Logistics and Transportation Complexities: 1. Challenges in multimodal transportation, 2. Special transportation requirements, 3. Disruptions from geopolitical conflicts.

Stabilizing Raw Material Supply

The presentation elaborated on the shares of global mine production and refined production by country in 2024.

Improving Raw Material Quality

Advanced Mining and Beneficiation Technologies to Enhance Tin Ore Grade: Through a combined gravity separation-flotation process, the grade of tin ore can be increased from 0.5%-1.5% in primary ore to 60%-70% in concentrate, significantly reducing smelting energy consumption and impurity content. High-quality tin ore can produce higher-quality tin ingots, meeting the quality requirements of the high-end market for tin ingots, enhancing competitiveness in the international tin ingot trade, and fetching higher trade prices.

Enhancing Tin Ingot Quality

Smart Logistics and Warehousing Inject Vitality into Tin Ingot Trade

►Shortening the circulation cycle of tin ingots and optimizing logistics routes

Smart Warehouse Management: Real-time tracking of tin ingot locations, inventory quantities, and status, automated handling of inbound and outbound processes, reducing manual operation time, and improving inventory counting efficiency by over 80%. By considering the transportation requirements for tin ingots (such as weight, distance, and time sensitivity), the system automatically plans the optimal delivery routes to avoid circuitous transportation. Taking long-distance transportation as an example, intelligent dispatching can reduce transportation time costs by 15%-20%.

► Cost Control: Reducing Operational Expenses Across the Entire Chain

Warehousing Cost Reduction: The use of three-dimensional warehouses and automated shelving systems enhances space utilization, increasing storage capacity per unit area by 3-5 times compared to traditional warehouses, thereby reducing rental expenses. Automated equipment (such as smart forklifts) replaces manual operations, reducing labour requirements in warehousing by over 50% and simultaneously lowering loss costs caused by human errors (e.g., damage to tin ingots during handling, incorrect transportation).

► Precision Management: Enhancing Supply Chain Controllability

Full-Process Visual Traceability: By integrating blockchain technology with the Internet of Things (IoT), a unique "digital identity" is generated for each batch of tin ingots, recording data throughout the entire process from production and warehousing to logistics and delivery. IoT technology enables real-time monitoring of the location and status of tin ingots during transportation, allowing customers and traders to access cargo information at any time, enhancing trade trust and reducing disputes.

The Role of Solder Plants in Driving Tin Ingot Trade Across the Entire Industry Chain

► 1. Demand Side: Directly Boosting Tin Ingot Consumption

► 2. Industry Chain Synergy: Stabilizing Tin Ingot Circulation

Upstream Linkages Ensure Stable Tin Ingot Supply, Reducing Market Price Volatility Risks.

Inventory Adjustment.

► 3. Technological Upgrades Driving High-Value-Added Trade

Demand for High-Purity Tin: Lead-free solders (such as Sn-Ag-Cu alloys) require higher purity levels of tin ingots (≥99.9%), driving premium trading of high-grade tin ingots and the development of niche markets.

Recycled Tin Utilization: Increased procurement of recycled tin (e.g., from waste PCBs) by solder plants promotes the improvement of the recycled tin trade chain, partially substituting the demand for primary tin ingots.

► 4. Price Transmission and Financialization

Pricing Influence: The concentrated procurement behavior of solder plants may serve as a reference for spot prices of tin ingots, particularly in regional markets (e.g., South China market).

Comprehensive Benefits of Entire Industry Chain Synergy on Tin Ingot Trade

► Reduced Losses in Raw Material Transportation

Through close coordination among mines, beneficiation plants, and smelters, losses in raw material transportation are reduced by 10%, directly lowering production costs.

The shortened distance between mines and beneficiation plants reduces transportation time and associated losses, thereby improving raw material utilization rates.

► Optimization of Intermediate Inventory

Intermediate inventory is reduced by 20%, lowering capital occupation costs and increasing the overall raw material utilization rate by 15%.

Real-time data sharing enables precise alignment across all links, reducing unnecessary inventory backlogs and improving capital turnover rates.

►Comprehensive cost advantages

Collaboration across the entire industry chain has reduced total costs by 12%, allowing orders to be secured through more competitive pricing in trade.

By optimizing costs at each link, enterprises convert the saved costs into pricing advantages, expanding market share.

Comprehensive cost advantages

Enhanced competitiveness: Orders can be secured through more competitive pricing in trade, with market share expanding by 10%. By reducing costs, enterprises have improved the price competitiveness of their products, thereby expanding their market share.

Improved customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction has increased by 20%, enhancing the corporate brand image and increasing customer loyalty. By optimizing the cost structure, enterprises have improved product quality and service levels, winning customer recognition.

Strengthened cost control capabilities: Cost control capabilities have been enhanced, improving the enterprise's risk resistance and sustainable development capabilities. Through refined cost management, enterprises have strengthened their cost control capabilities and improved their risk resistance.

Summary

Stable supply capability, quality improvement and standardization, cost optimization and efficiency enhancement, and strengthened risk resistance.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead to 2025, the global tin ore supply faces numerous challenges in terms of stability and continuity, with certain uncertainties remaining in traditional tin ore producing regions outside of China. On the demand side, with the continuous implementation of domestic consumption stimulus policies, there is a certain growth potential for domestic tin demand. Meanwhile, driven by the dual factors of the expanding application scenarios of artificial intelligence and the continuous increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles (NEVs), there is also growth potential in the consumption of major overseas economies. As an important link in the industry chain, Jucheng Industry will continue to optimize its role and value in the tin ingot supply chain, with the core strategies of "upgrading supply chain resilience, deepening value exploration on the demand side, and building a global ecosystem," to achieve a role transition from "link-specific services" to "full-chain empowerment."

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