* * * * TIN QUOTA AT 100 PER CENT.
Tin, the last of the metals to be brought within the scheme of maximum prices, was fixed on Monday at a maximum of f230 a ton. This does not involve any change in price. For some months the buffer pool has been a seller at £230 and. in consequence, that has been the effective basis. It is still effective. Sellers can be found at or just under £230, and business is being done. What the maximum price implies is that if the pool should cease to supply the market and no other sellers should appear business would be brought to a standstill. The pool is thus relieved of its obligation to supply the market and is encouraged to conserve its stock.
At the same time the quota has been raised again, this time to roo per cent. Since the outbreak of war the pro- duction quota has been raised in three stages from 45 per cent. of standard to roo per cent. of standard, though the increase to roo per cent. has so far been applied only to the current July-September quarter. With a quota of Ica° per cent the world's production is fixed nominally at the rate of zoo,000 tons per annum, which will perhaps not be fully and immediately effective since some tin-producing countries will not be able to attain that level of activity without careful preparation. But the most important tin-producing areas, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, can do so almost imme- diately with the help of existing ore stocks.
The strategy here is obvious: it is to create immediately 3 considerable additional reserve of tin. War-time consump- tion is high, but it is not necessarily as high as roo per cmt. of standard tonnages. With an extra cushion of supplies in hand, the situation can be judged later in the light of experience. Obviously, the earnings prospects of tin mining companies are quite promising. Perak River Hydro Electric, whose future depends on the volume of output, is also Drell placed in current conditions. The Er ordinaries, at 16s., are a good lock-up speculation.
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