Tin to be traded on Indonesia’s new commodity exchange

Tin is expected to be the first commodity traded on Indonesia’s new Mineral and Strategic Commodity Exchange (BMKS, or ICOMEX), with trading scheduled to begin on 4 January 2027.
Following a hearing with Indonesia’s parliament, Sarjito, OJK’s Chief Executive for Mineral and Strategic Commodity Exchange Supervision, told local media that tin was chosen to “encourage transparency in trading”.
The exchange is intended to cover several of Indonesia’s key commodities, including nickel and coal, although earlier indications suggested that tin would not be included initially.
Under previous reforms to Indonesia’s tin industry, refined tin for export has been required since 2013 to be traded through either the Jakarta Futures Exchange (JFX) or the Indonesia Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (ICDX).
The JFX is supportive of the change, with President Director Yazid Kanca Surya commenting that the exchange’s focus “is to ensure that the experience [the JFX] already has can make a concrete contribution to the implementation of the government’s agenda and further strengthen Indonesia’s position in strategic commodity trading”.
The government has taken an increasing active role in Indonesia’s tin industry over the past two decades, accelerating since 2023 with the criminal investigation into historical corruption in the domestic tin trade.
The government shut down and nationalised six implicated smelters in 2025, extended the country’s SIMBARA tracking system to tin in 2024, and moved from annual to three-year RKAB licences before reversing the change in late 2025.
A progressive royalty system was also introduced in 2025, with further increases proposed in 2026 before being postponed indefinitely.
The largest exporter of refined tin globally, Indonesia’s tin output has declined in recent years amid a tightening regulatory environment. Protracted challenges around illegal mining of the country’s alluvial tin reserves in Bangka Belitung have also impacted output.
ITA expects Indonesian refined tin production to fall around 10% year-on-year in 2026 to 51,700 tonnes. The material impact of this change on the global tin industry remains unclear, although the effects are likely to largely be isolated to Indonesia’s market as trade is transferred from the two existing exchanges to ICOMEX.