Ups, downs of tin trading

FROM mobile phones and laptops to flat-screen TVs and more, tin is a critical ingredient in the multitude of electronic gadgets used by today's consumer. More specifically, the raw material is used as a solder to join metal pieces together.

Chances are that the tin that is in your mobile phone comes from Indonesia, the world's biggest exporter of tin. And 90 per cent of Indonesia's tin comes from the twin islands of Bangka and Belitung, which also boasts beautiful beaches and white pepper farms. Located in the province of Babel, the two islands off the coast of Sumatra have a long history of being tin mining towns. And this is where Singapore company My United Traders, or MUT for short, started its tin trading business.

Set up in 2007, MUT primarily focuses on the marketing and trading of Indonesian refined tin ingots produced from its group of partnering tin smelters and refineries in Indonesia. It is a subsidiary of the Singatin Group, a strategic refined tin metal structured organisation. The group specialises in owning tin concessions, performing their own exploration, having a fleet of dredges to mine, working with a group of smelting plants in smelting and refining tin to market specifications and penetrating markets with accredited refined tin ingots.