Business: Tin Cartel

Afloat in freighters on the high seas last week were 10,254 tons of tin bound for U. S. ports to be combined or converted into can coatings, automobile bearings, tooth fillings, gun metal, tin foil. At the same time, in Brussels, the discreet and powerful gentlemen whose companies mined this tin were agreeing to extend for five years the cartel by which world tin production is determined. Set for the first quarter of 1937 were production quotas at what the International Tin Committee calls “standard 100%,” practically identical with 1929 production (192,000 tons). Siam, which nearly broke up the agreement last year by demanding a bigger quota, came into line with an allotment of 18,000 tons yearly. Other annual quotas: Britain’s Malay Peninsula, 71,940 tons; Britain’s Nigeria, 10,890 tons; Dutch East Indies, 36,330 tons; Bolivia, 46,490 tons. The Belgian Congo, however, was given 13,200 instead of standard 7,000 tons. Tin is currently worth 51¢ per lb., $1,142.40 per ton.