The gap between tin supply and demand has widened

Tin: a low melting point metal with a wide range of uses

1.1 Use of tin and its compounds

Tin is a low melting point metal with silver-white metallic luster, pure tin is soft, good ductility at room temperature, stable chemical properties, not easy to be oxidized, and often maintains a shiny silver luster. The tin content in the Earth's crust is 0.004%, almost all in the form of cassite (tin oxide), in addition to a very small amount of tin sulfide deposits. As one of the "hardware" (gold, silver, copper, iron, tin), tin has been used by humans as early as 2000 BC. Tin metal has a wide range of uses. Due to its low melting point, good ductility, easy to form alloys with many metals, non-toxic, corrosion resistance and beautiful appearance, tin is widely used in electronics, food, automotive, medicine, textile, construction, handicraft manufacturing and other industries. The industrial chain of tin metal is complete. The upstream of tin industry chain is the mine, which is mainly responsible for tin mining and tin concentrate production; The middle reaches are refined tin, resulting in tin alloys, tin organic compounds, tin inorganic compounds, tin materials and other products; Downstream are tin related applications, including the electronics industry, chemical industry, automotive industry, etc.

The downstream application of tin is very extensive, and the market concentration is high. The use of tin is mainly concentrated in tin alloy, tin chemicals, tin materials, lead-acid batteries, of which tin solder in tin alloy, tin plate in tin materials, tin chemical products account for a relatively high proportion. Tin solder is mainly used in chemical industry, which plays the role of mechanical connection, electrical connection and heat exchange. Tinplate is used in the manufacture of tinned sheets, which can be used as food and beverage packaging materials; Tin compounds can be used as raw materials for ceramic glaze, mordant for printing and dyeing silk fabrics, heat stabilizer for plastics, as well as fungicides and insecticides.

1.2 The distribution of global tin resources is relatively concentrated, and the inventory is declining year by year

The world's tin resources are mainly distributed in China, Indonesia and Myanmar, and the reserves of these three countries account for 52% of the global reserves. According to the 2022 Mineral Summary released by the United States Geological Survey, global tin reserves in 2021 are 4.9 million tons. Among them, China's tin reserves of 1.1 million tons, accounting for 22% of the global total reserves, ranking first in the world. Indonesia and Myanmar ranked second and third in tin reserves, 800,000 tons and 700,000 tons, respectively, accounting for 16% and 14% of reserves. Since 2010, the overall global LME tin inventory has been on a downward trend. The reason lies in the following three reasons: 1, tin resource endowment is poor, the average content in the crust is only 0.004%, is the lowest among the main metal varieties. The world's tin deposits are small and scattered, and more than 60% of the resources are uneconomical, with current reserves of only 4.9 million tons. 2. Existing tin mining projects generally face the problem of resource exhaustion and grade decline. For example, the SAN rafael mine in Minsur, Peru, had a grade of 5-10% at the beginning of production and is now only 1-2%. 3. In recent years, COVID-19 has affected the supply side of tin mining, adding to the increased demand for electronics and consumer goods, which has largely caused the shortage of tin.