Indonesia's Timah eyes spot tin sales on price climb

JAKARTA, June 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia's PT Timah Tbk (TINS.JK), the world's biggest integrated tin miner, said on Wednesday it may boost spot sales if tin prices climb to $18,000-$20,000 per tonne after a fall in sales earlier in 2009.

Timah's net profit in the first quarter plunged 97 percent to 14.44 billion rupiah ($1.41 million) from 487 billion rupiah in the same period last year due to low tin prices.

In trading on the London Metal Exchange last week, the price of tin MSN3, which is used in food packaging and soldering of electronic components, surged to an eight-month high of $15,870 a tonne following a rally in base metals.

But the price is still around 40 percent below an all-time high of $25,500 a tonne hit in May last year.

Tin prices stood at $15,150/$15,350 a tonne on Wednesay.

"We may enter the spot market if prices can rebound to $18,000-$20,000, adding to contractual sales," Abrun Abubakar, the firm's corporate secretary, told reporters.

"But we still have to wait and see if prices can reach that level. We don't want to push sales and then prices suddenly fall," Abubakar said.

The firm is sticking to a production target of 45,000-48,000 tonnes for this year but that could reach 50,000 tonnes if the firm lifted spot sales, he said.

The firm sold 46,438 tonnes of refined tin in 2008 with about 90 percent accounted for by contractual sales and the remaining on spot sales.

The company was still interested in acquiring overseas mines but it has not yet found suitable mines to develop, he said.

"We have gone to Australia and Vietnam, but have not found mines with big deposits. Also, with low tin prices, it's more profitable to focus on exploring tin reserves in Indonesia," he said.

The firm intended to focus on improving production from its offshore mines and in developing value-added tin products such as tin chemicals and tin solders which would fetch a higher prices than tin ingots, Abubakar said. (Reporting by Fitri Wulandari; Editing by Ed Davies)