To help boost the languishing tin mining industry, producers have set up a company in London to promote research and expand use of the metal.
The new company, ITRA Ltd., is to coax international tin users into using the expertise of the London-based International Tin Research Institute (ITRI), said Redzwan Sumun, executive secretary of the Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC).
ATPC, set up in 1984, is now the parent of ITRI, which is funded by six of the seven ATPC members — Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Nigeria and Zaire. Bolivia, the remaining ATPC member, is not an ITRI member. ITRI was established by tin producers in 1932 under a pre-war international tin agreement.
Agence France Presse reports that ITRI member nations are finding it difficult to finance escalating research costs of some US$4 million per year amid the depressed market.
The new firm is to act as an intermediary between ITRI and tin-using industries keen on conducting research, Redzwan said.
Analysts said efforts to expand tin consumption would help expedite the depletion of an estimated 40,000 tonnes of excess tin on the global market.
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