The international pricing of tin resources is mainly based on the futures market pricing model. The global supply and consumption of tin resources are relatively concentrated, and China's tin reserves, production, and consumption all rank first in the world, which has a certain impact on pricing.
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Since the 16th century, the UK has become a global center for tin metal trading. The Royal Exchange, established in London, England in 1571, was the world's first metal trading hub, including tin. Metal traders from the UK and Europe regularly meet here. A trader who plans to sell metal draws a circle on the floor with sawdust, while other traders who wish to trade are arranged around the circle for quotation. This became the prototype of the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the initial form of Ring trading. Since the Industrial Revolution, Britain has had to import a large amount of raw materials, including tin, from abroad. With its strong production capacity and advantages as a suzerain, the UK became a global center for tin trade and pricing in the 19th century.
The second was the establishment of the London Metal Exchange in 1877, which gradually became the benchmark for international trade in tin. In the 19th century, British tin ore was mainly imported from Malaya and India, and transportation through the Suez Canal took up to three months, during which price fluctuations caused significant risks. Therefore, the demand for standardized and low-risk trading by metal traders led to the establishment of the London Metal Exchange in 1877. At the beginning of its establishment, LME only traded tin and copper. Due to the fact that tin and copper were transported by sea from Malaya and Chile to the UK, which usually took three months, LME's standard delivery date was also set at three months, and this trading mechanism has been preserved to this day. In the early 20th century, LME began to publicly disclose the transaction prices of tin and was widely used as the standard price for world trade.
The proportion of reserves in major tin resource countries worldwide (data source: China Geological Survey)
Thirdly, the International Tin Council has supported the pricing of tin through intergovernmental agreements and stabilized the market. Due to the susceptibility of tin prices to factors such as the international situation and the domestic political environment of producing countries, tin prices fluctuated significantly during most of the 20th century. In addition to the tin price announced by LME, intergovernmental agreement pricing has become one of the leading mechanisms for tin pricing. In July 1956, the first International Tin Agreement (ITA) signed by 19 tin producing and consuming countries came into effect, establishing the International Tin Council (ITC) to manage the tin agreement. The first ITA stipulates that the producing country guarantees a buffer stock of 25000 tons of tin. ITC holds regular meetings at least every three months to evaluate the global supply and demand situation of tin, and attempts to reduce tin price fluctuations by buffering inventory purchases, implementing export controls, and supporting the highest and lowest price ranges, ensuring fair and paid prices for tin. The International Tin Council facilitated the signing of six five-year international tin agreements, contributing to the pricing of tin intergovernmental agreements and the stabilization of the tin market.
One is that the International Tin Council was ultimately dissolved in 1989 due to insufficient control over tin production and consumption