FX.co ★ Tin Pulls Back from Record High

Tin futures in the UK fell to $54,200 per tonne, down from the January 26th record high of $56,800. This occurred following the Shanghai Futures Exchange's (SHFE) suspension of trading for several clients who failed to disclose their total positions, part of an initiative to restrain the metal's speculative surge. The price of tin had climbed by more than 40% this year, largely driven by its extensive use in soldering for electronic goods and data centers, leading investors to boost their contracts as speculative bets on AI technologies. In Shanghai, trading volumes skyrocketed, surpassing one million tonnes in a single session during the first week of the year—a figure more than twice the annual global physical consumption. This prompted regulatory warnings against "blindly following the trend" and restrictions on certain high-frequency trading firms' access to the market. Meanwhile, global physical supply remained unpredictable, following Indonesian President Subianto's order to shut down 1,000 illegal tin mines in Sumatra, consequently reducing output from the world's second-largest tin supplier.