The impact of the military coup in Myanmar on tin ore exports

SHANGHAI, Mar 17 (SMM) — According to SMM survey, the turbulent situation currently does not have a significant impact on the export and transportation of tin ore. The slowdown in the transportation of some tin ore is mainly due to factors in pandemic prevention and control, and the concentration of Chinese personnel returning to China under the turbulent situation constitutes a slight impact on the transportation of goods at customs.

Since Myanmar fell into turmoil on February 1, various types of protests have erupted across the country and have led to many violent conflicts. It was also reported that the turmoil in Myanmar affected many Chinese-funded enterprises or Sino-Myanmar joint ventures, most of which were garment processing factories, garment accessories factories and supporting production enterprises. The mining and selection of mines was not affected.

The violent conflicts mainly occurred in the Yangon area of Myanmar, and the output of tin ore was concentrated in the Loikaw area, so the impact was not significant. In addition to the restrictions on transportation at Ruili Port due to pandemic prevention and control, the concentrated return of Chinese personnel and isolation in the turbulent situation had a certain impact on cargo transportation, and the transportation speed slowed down. Previously, SMM had reported that the Meng'a Port was also accepting large quantities of Chinese personnel returning from the Wa state, which will affect the customs clearance and transportation of tin ore from time to time.

In the past two weeks, TCs for domestic tin concentrate remained stable, with 40% concentrate TCs of 13,000-14,000 yuan/mt, and 60% concentrate TCs of 9,000-10,000 yuan/mt. Market participants said that due to the sharp increase in tin prices in the early stage, many domestic tin ore hidden inventories were sold off, which played a certain role in alleviating the tension of tin ore raw materials. TCs also increased, while domestic tin ore supply did not got rid of the tight situation. At present, the export of tin ore in Myanmar is facing the situation of a shortage of mining workers and a slowdown in transportation speed. Even if tin prices are high, the supply is expected to be unlikely to rapidly increase in the near term.