Pangkalpinang, Aug 5 (Antara) - Tin exports from Bangka Belitung Province often called Babel in short, rose 9.7 percent in value to US$877.6 million in June from US$800.2 million in the previous month.
"Tin export value rose because the world price of tin also rose while tin exports are expected to continue to increase in July," the head of the provincial office of the National Statistics Agency (BPS), Herum Fajarwati, said here on Monday.
He said tin was the biggest export commodity contributing 88.9 percent to the province's total exports from January to June.
Most of the province's tin exports went to Singapore worth up to US$613.2 million or 69.9 percent of total tin export value, followed by Malaysia (7.3 percent) worth US$63.7 million, Korea (4.4 percent) worth US$38.4 million, the Netherlands (4.2 percent) worth US$37 million and Thailand (4.0 pct) worth US$35.2 million.
"The five countries contribute up to 89.7 percent of the total tin exports of the province from January to June 2013," he said.
In June this year tin exports to the five countries dropped 36.7 percent from US$189.9 million in May.
"The biggest drop was exports to Malaysia by 60.9 percent from US$27.1 million to US$10.6 million, followed by Korea by 50.1 percent, Singapore by 32 percent to only US$89.9 million, the Netherlands 7.7 percent and Thailand 22.9 percent," he said.
The president director of PT Timah Tbk., Sukrisno said, early this month the world price of tin rose to US$20,500 per ton from around US$19,300 before.
"Thank God this morning the price soared drastically from US$19,200 last month to 1US$19,300 per ton following improving world economic conditions," he said.
He said in connection with the hike PT Timah Tbk. and its partners planned to increase production and exports to various countries.
"We will increase production and maximize sales," he added.
