Tin's two-stage supply chain:
resources are widely dispersed, smelting is highly concentrated

Tin resources cluster along two metallogenic belts: the Southeast Asia – South China circum-Pacific tin belt and the South American Andean tin belt. Indonesia holds the largest reserves, China ranks second, and Myanmar and Brazil tie for third. But the reserve structure is not the production structure: Indonesia's ores are mostly placer deposits — cheap to mine, with falling grades; the DR Congo holds just 1.5% of reserves yet supplies 9.3% of mine output — a classic high-grade, under-explored source.

Refined tin capacity barely overlaps with the resource map. China produced 178.7 kt of refined tin in 2025, half the world total, with Yunnan alone accounting for half of that — Gejiu is the core cluster. Indonesia ranks second (17%), exporting mostly standard ingots with limited downstream processing; Peru holds 10%, where Minsur's smelting capacity absorbs most of the domestic concentrate. Malaysia (6%), Thailand (3%) and Belgium (2%) have almost no mines of their own — their smelters run on imported concentrate and recycled material. Africa so far only does crude smelting, and its concentrate leaves as raw ore, with the value-added captured offshore.

Two stages of flows, two different logics. On the concentrate side, what matters is border crossings and ports: Myanmar uses the Menglian / Gengma border crossings, the DR Congo uses Dar es Salaam, Nigeria uses Lagos. On the refined-tin side, what matters is delivery and consumption: Indonesia routes through Singapore and Rotterdam; China ships general trade and processing trade to Japan and Korea; Malaysia and Thailand import concentrate, process it, and re-export to Europe and the US. Click to switch between the two flow maps.

Broken down node by node, every route has its own physical constraints: crossing capacity, port schedules, political stability. 2025 anchors: China imported tin concentrate totalling roughly 53 kt of tin content (+1.7% YoY); it exported 23 kt and imported 19 kt of refined tin, a net export of about 3,500 t; Indonesia shipped 53 kt of refined tin, the world's largest exporter. All route shares are on a tin-content basis.

This version has locked down the structure, coordinates and main corridors, and now carries 2025 physical volumes per route on a unified tin-content basis. The remaining tracks below complete the picture for external use.