Word: tins
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...Tin, the malleable metal that has been considered versatile enough for the coffins of kings in the 17th century and for cola cans in the 20th, is now in trouble in the marketplace. Trading in the commodity has been suspended on the London Metal Exchange since Oct. 24, and it remained unclear last week just when the buying and selling of tin will resume. Says Jacques Lion, chairman of the London Metal Exchange: "The global tin industry is in complete disarray." Some members of the 108-year-old exchange are suggesting that the time may have come for closing...
Trading was halted after the International Tin Council, a cartel made up of 22 leading tin-producing and-consuming nations, found itself short of cash to finance its operation. While most commodity markets are vulnerable to volatile price swings, tin prices have been controlled by the London-based I.T.C. The cartel attempted to fix both the world supply and the price of tin, measures once considered beneficial to consumers of the metal as well as producers. It assigned production quotas to members and then bought up surplus tin whenever international prices fell below a certain level. The surplus metal...
During the past decade, however, the cartel has found it increasingly difficult to support prices because world demand for tin dropped while non-cartel countries were expanding production. Industrial use of tin slumped when manufacturers turned to other metals and plastic. Meanwhile, Brazil, not a member of the cartel, had become the world's fifth largest producer by 1984. The combination of decreased demand and increased production created a global oversupply of tin...
...order to finance its attempts to prop up prices, the tin council during the past several years borrowed nearly $500 million from 16 international financial institutions. The creditors, though, are setting tough terms for any future loans. Last week they said that they would postpone the dates for payment on past loans and offer short-and long-term financing needed to keep the cartel afloat, but only on condition that their loans were guaranteed by the 22 governments that make up the council...
That outlay showed what Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing Magazine, calls "a tin ear for symbolism," given that Detroit's $230 million budget deficit has prompted the mayor to eliminate 3,000 city positions and end 24-hour bus service. It has not helped that Kilpatrick left undiminished his 21-person security detail (the mayor of Chicago, a city with three times the population, has 15 guards). When Gary Brown, the deputy chief of police internal affairs, opened an investigation into misconduct by the security team, Kilpatrick fired him, ostensibly because Brown did not get his chief's approval...