British Market to Resume Tin Trading Nov. 18

The London Metal Exchange, the world’s leading metals market, will resume trading in tin on Nov. 18, LME Chief Executive Michael Brown said Friday.

There has been no tin traded on the exchange since Oct. 24, when dealings were halted after the International Tin Council, a group of tin producing and consuming countries, announced that it had run out of funds to continue supporting prices.

LME officials, under pressure to reopen the tin market, had hoped that Thursday’s emergency meeting of the ITC might pave the way for resolving the chaos that has raged in the world’s tin industry for the past two weeks. But, with no firm proposals emerging from the talks, the LME has decided to try to take a lead in relieving the crisis.

The ITC will meet again next Thursday for another attempt at piecing together a rescue package for the ailing market, so the LME’s choice of date will allow the ITC a last chance to restore confidence in the confused marketplace before dealings resume.

The LME has been wrestling with the problem of whether to resume tin dealings in the absence of assurances from the ITC that it will meet its outstanding obligations to trading firms and banks, estimated to total several hundred million dollars.

Analysts fear that such a move could send prices tumbling well below the $5.20 a pound last quoted before trading was halted Oct. 24. Some feel that values could fall by as much as 50%.