PT Timah resumed tin exports in March, says company official

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's biggest tin miner PT Timah resumed exports in March, a company official said on Monday, as the government worked through a backlog of production quota applications that disrupted shipments in the first two months of the year. Exports of mining products from Indonesia, a major minerals producer, have been affected this year by delays in approvals of mining companies' annual work plans, known locally as RKAB, amid changes in the approval process at the mining ministry. "PT Timah has obtained RKAB and (an) export permit. We started exports in early March," said Abdullah Umar, PT Timah's corporate secretary.

Abdullah said the company exported around 1,600 metric tons in early March, its first shipment this year.

He did not elaborate on how much PT Timah was approved to export. Indonesia's refined tin exports slumped by 98% on a yearly basis in February to 55 tons, while January exports were close to zero, data from the trade ministry showed. Exports in December were at normal levels, totalling 5,975 tons. Global benchmark tin prices on the London Metal Exchange hit a seven-month high on Monday at $28,835 a ton due to the exports disruption. Indonesia produced 74,400 tons of refined tin last year, about a fifth of global output, and exported 57,317 tons, data from the World Bureau of Metal Statistics showed. Mining of other minerals such as nickel ore have also been affected by the delays, supporting prices.

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina in Jakarta and Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Susan Fenton)