Indonesia eyes larger role in global tin price formation

By Dominikus

Indonesia has an opportunity to strengthen its position not only as one of the world’s key tin producers, but also as a regional and global pricing and trading hub for the metal, a senior Jakarta Futures Exchange official said at the Tin Forum of Indonesia Critical Minerals 2026 in Jakarta on Fiday.

Erwin Setyawan, Head of Trading and Operation of Jakarta Futures Exchange, said Indonesia’s next opportunity lies in expanding its influence beyond the physical supply chain into how tin is traded and valued by the market.

“Indonesia is already recognized globally as one of the key tin-producing countries,” Erwin said during a panel discussion on global tin mine supply, current dynamics, opportunities and future challenges.

“When we look at Asia, the region represents a significant portion of global tin production, processing and consumption. However, much of the global price discovery still takes place outside the region,” he said.

Erwin said Indonesia has a unique opportunity to bridge that gap by developing a stronger and more transparent trading ecosystem that can support physical supply, market information and risk management tools.

He said more regional market participants, including miners, smelters, traders and manufacturers, are exploring ways to participate in exchange-based trading, giving Indonesia room to play a larger role in regional and global price formation.

Tin is gaining greater strategic relevance because of its use in technology, manufacturing and the energy transition, including solder, semiconductor packaging, solar panels and other electronic components.

Joseph G. Miller Esq, Strategic and Defense Metals Specialist and Director at Mission Critical Metals, said demand from artificial intelligence data centers could become a major new driver for tin consumption. He said a data center with one gigawatt of installed capacity could consume about 1,200 to 1,500 tons of tin, while more than 30 gigawatts of computing power is expected to come online over the next 12 months.

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Miller said this could translate into around 45,000 tons of additional tin demand from AI related growth, excluding continued demand from the solar sector.

He said tin accounts for only a small portion of the cost of data centers or solar panels, meaning higher tin prices may have limited impact on final project costs, but could increase pressure on intermediate suppliers that produce solder and ingots.

Vicky Qiao, Senior Analyst at SMM, said the tin industry is also facing shifts in demand from semiconductor packaging, photovoltaic ribbon, electric vehicle battery interconnections, and high-end chip packaging. She said these sectors could support structural demand growth for high-purity tin and tin-silver-copper alloy solder over the next three to five years.

Erwin said commodity exchanges can help the tin sector by providing transparent price discovery and risk management tools, particularly as supply chains in Asia become more integrated and market participants require more reliable pricing references.

“For any commodity market, especially one that is becoming increasingly strategic like tin, transparency is critical,” he said.

He said transparent markets can build confidence, attract investment and help producers, importers and industrial users manage price volatility.

Erwin also said there is room for complementary regional benchmark mechanisms that better reflect Asian tin market fundamentals, including supply demand conditions, export flows and demand patterns.

“The objective is not fragmentation,” he said, adding that regional benchmarks could provide additional transparency and pricing references relevant for regional stakeholders.

The panel also discussed supply concentration risks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, new tin supply prospects in Europe, China’s efforts to strengthen tin resource security, and the need for cross border collaboration to build a more reliable, transparent and sustainable global tin supply chain.

Egyul Mamoko, Metallurgist Expert of CTCPM, said the DRC wants to move further downstream in tin processing instead of exporting only tin concentrate, in order to retain more value, technology and byproducts domestically.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak