International Tin Council

The press reported in March 1960 that the International Tin Council had again raised the export quotas for its six producing members, this time to 37,500 tons for the June quarter. Previous increases had raised the limit by 2,000 tons to 25,000 for the third quarter of 1959; by 5,000 tons to 30,000 for the fourth quarter of 1959; and by 6,000 tons to 36,000, or 95 percent of capacity, for the first quarter of 1960. This last increase raised the export quota of the Federation of Malaya to 13,590 long tons, or 37.75 percent of the global quota. The first-quarter quotas for the other five producing countries were as follows: Bolivia, 6,984 tons (19.4 percent); Indonesia, 6,804 tons (18.9 percent); Belgian Congo, 3,258 tons (9.05 percent); Thailand, 3,168 tons (8.8 percent); and the Federation of Nigeria, 2,196 tons (6.1 percent). The Malayan quota was equivalent to 91.7 percent of the quarterly production in that country in 1957, prior to the establishment of controls; as a result of the substantial quota, all mines operating in Malaya between January 1953 and December 1957 became eligible to resume operations. Applications from new mines were also to be accepted. Thailand's quota for the first quarter of 1960 was 20 percent above that for the last quarter of 1959, which meant that mines operating at 60–80 percent of capacity in late 1959 might increase operations to 90 percent; in the early part of 1959, when Thailand's tin export quota was low, mines had operated at only 50 percent of capacity, and more than 1,000 mine workers had been dismissed during the year.