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Dutch tincoons also try to monopolize the smelting business, slap export taxes on Malayan and Indies ore that does not go to plants in Straits Settlements, England or The Netherlands.
Producing around 50% of the world supply, Britain and The Netherlands are a long way from holding the ownership control over tin that they hold over rubber. A potentially big tin source is Bolivia, which hit a top production of 46,343 tons in 1929, by last year produced only 27,185. Bolivian ore is low grade, but (mixed with high grade) has been worked profitably by smelters in England and Holland. It is now being worked on an experimental scale by new U. S. smelters put up by Phelps Dodge and American Metal Co. Ltd. (TIME, Dec. 11).
But U. S. use of tin can be cut. Container substitutes can be made from glass and paper, cans can be plated with aluminum, cadmium can partially replace tin in hard alloys. If a pinch should come, the Bolivian supply might be stepped up to fill every essential U. S. tin use. Even so the technological changeover would be jarring, expensive, the results less satisfactory. Last week U. S. dealers bid high for spot tin, ran the price up 8¢ a pound to 55¢.