Its plant in Pulau Indah, Selangor, is expected to reach full capacity to cater to the growing global demand for tin.
MSC group chief operating officer Raveentiran Krishnan said the company’s new plant in Pulau Indah is ramping up production and more time is needed for it to reach full capacity.
“We will slowly phase out our Butterworth smelting plant over the next two to three years and then move operations to Pulau Indah.
“The old smelter will then be demolished to give way to commercial and residential development in this area,” he said.
Built in 1902 by The Straits Trading Company, the iconic Butterworth smelting plant, once a significant contributor to the country’s economy, has stood the test of time and witnessed various incidents like the World War II and 1985’s tin price crisis, which led to the collapse of the Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC).
When the Japanese overran the plant during World War II, Raveentiran said the plant’s tin-smelting operations stopped as it was used to produce parts for their war machinery, including bicycle, motorcycles and vehicles to facilitate their war in Malaya.
Tin market’s ups and downs
Despite the crash of the tin market in 1985, when ATPC was unable to rein in tin prices, MSC managed to continue its operations at the Butterworth plant against all odds.
“The market crashed and the tin price fell all the way down to RM20 per kg and it remained at that level until 2003.
“Countries like China and Indonesia started producing more and more, thus making the demand lower compared to supply,” he said.
However, tin prices began to recover around 2004 on strong demand due to its nature as a technology metal and in line with the rise in the manufacturing of telecommunications and consumer electronics to meet rising demand.
Needless to say, the global technology boom is very much a catalyst for the tin market with its application not only limited to the traditional use of soldering and tin plating but also in batteries in electric vehicles (EV), solar panels, chemicals and so on.
“We are also working very hard now to continue developing new applications for tin. This is being done in cooperation with the UK-based International Tin Association as well as other parties to sustain the use of tin.
“In the post-application side, there is also growing momentum to recycle tin by extracting it from electronic components so that we will not have to just focus on mining,” he said.
Tin industry still thriving
In terms of production, he said MSC could currently smelt up to about 30,000 tonnes of tin concentrates per annum and this amount is likely to rise to about 40,000 tonnes in the near future.
“Going forward, as we ramp up the operations in Port Klang, we expect more concentrates will come our way because we have got a TSL (top submerged lance) furnace, which has overriding benefits over conventional furnaces, including lower operating cost, access to the LME (London Metal Exchange) warehouse and, most importantly, a smaller carbon footprint,” he said.
Although the tin industry was dubbed a “sunset industry” back in the 1980s, Raveentiran said it is still thriving with global consumption now at about 380,000 tonnes of tin per annum compared with 250,000 tonnes back then.
“The interest in tin is reviving and demand has been growing, even more so given the rise in renewable energy. Tin is being marketed as a green metal because it has so many benefits.”
He said innovation, growth in manufacturing activities and higher demand for electronics were factors driving the demand for tin, which is also causing the price to move up.
“Tin sits in a very sweet spot in the periodic table (for metals). Its remarkable physical and chemical properties are unsurpassed by any other non-ferrous metal and I do not see any other metal that can possibly replace tin,” he added.
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