Tin Price History: Monthly Global Price Since 1992

Tin has quietly become a technology metal: more than half of world production goes into the solder that joins electronic components, from circuit boards to semiconductors and solar panels. This dataset tracks the IMF Primary Commodity Prices benchmark, the LME tin cash price, published monthly in US dollars per metric ton and distributed via FRED under the code PTINUSDM, with continuous coverage since 1992. China and Indonesia are the largest producers, with Myanmar an important swing supplier.

Dataset: Tin Price (1992–2026) · Updated 2026-03-01

Source: IMF Primary Commodity Prices · International Monetary Fund (via FRED)

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns. Each row represents one calendar month.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats — monthly observations covering more than three decades.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is published in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database under the series code PTINUSDM, sourced from the IMF Primary Commodity Prices dataset:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=PTINUSDM

The Eco3min dataset mirrors the same monthly series, packaged in a stable, versionable CSV with consistent column names — designed for direct ingestion in Python, R, or any data pipeline. The URL never changes, making it suitable for automated scripts.

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/tin-price.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/tin-price.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["tin_price"].describe())

df.plot(x="date", y="tin_price", title="Tin Price", legend=False)

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/tin-price.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$tin_price)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

The IMF reports the tin price in US dollars per metric ton, based on the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price for standard-grade tin.

Values are monthly averages, which smooth the intra-month swings visible in daily futures and physical quotes. The series begins in 1992.

This dataset is updated monthly via an automated pull from the FRED API (series PTINUSDM) by an Eco3min pipeline running on GitHub Actions, which regenerates the cleaned CSV and Excel files and refreshes the page metadata.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

The IMF/benchmark price is a widely cited physical-market reference. A few provider-specific points matter when using this series.

• Release latency. The IMF publishes Primary Commodity Prices monthly, typically in the first week of the following month. FRED ingests the update shortly after, and Eco3min mirrors it with a monthly pull. The series is not a real-time price.
• Monthly average vs futures spot. This series is a monthly average. It will differ from any single exchange settlement, and a monthly average necessarily understates intra-month peaks.
• Revisions. Prices are market-derived and not subject to the vintage revisions of survey-based macro series, though the IMF can restate recent observations.
• Alternative sources. ICE futures and the originating auction or indicator bodies provide higher-frequency or contract-specific quotes.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Series

1. Confusing nominal and real prices. This series is nominal. Comparing an early-1990s reading to a recent one without adjusting for cumulative inflation overstates the real change. Deflating by CPI gives the true purchasing-power move.
2. Reading the monthly average as a market price. Headlines quote exchange futures; this dataset reports the monthly benchmark average. The two diverge most during fast-moving rallies.
3. Unit confusion. This series is the LME cash price in US dollars per metric ton; SHFE (Shanghai) tin quotes differ, and tin’s thin market makes monthly averages smoother than volatile daily prices.

Historical Regimes

1992–2002 — Low. Tin traded below $7,000 per ton for much of the period.

2003–2011 — China and electronics. The commodity supercycle and rising electronics-solder demand lifted tin, peaking near $33,000 per ton in 2011.

2012–2019 — Range. Tin traded in a wide band as supply from Indonesia and Myanmar fluctuated.

2020–2022 — Inventory-crisis record. A work-from-home electronics boom, fractured supply chains, and smelter shutdowns drove tin parabolic to an all-time high around $50,000 per ton in early 2022.

2022–2023 — Crash. Rate hikes and a cooling electronics cycle crashed tin toward $17,000 per ton by late 2022.

2024–2026 — Recovery. Renewable-energy and electronics demand, plus Myanmar supply disruptions, lifted tin off its lows.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Commodity Price Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min commodity price repository — energy, metals, agricultural softs, and grains, all sourced from IMF Primary Commodity Prices via FRED.

Explore the Commodity Price Hub

Sources

• International Monetary Fund — Primary Commodity Prices, Global Price of Tin
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED database, series PTINUSDM
• London Metal Exchange (LME) cash settlement — basis underlying the IMF series

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). Tin Price — Global Monthly Price (1992-2026). Source: IMF Primary Commodity Prices via FRED.<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/tin-price-history-dataset/