LCD, low-temperature soldering and compound semiconductor : the sources, market, applications and future prospects of indium in Malaysia

Indium is a minor but very valuable metal. Decreasing supplies of indium from refining and increasing demands from LCD, low-temperature soldering and compound semiconductors have stimulated the indium price increase dramatically. Traditionally, indium is refined as a by-product of zinc refining. However, this type of indium extraction method is expected to last for the next 10-20 years and this opens a window to extract indium from other ores, especially from tin ore. Interestingly, extraction of indium from tin circuit can be considered as the major business and the pure tin metal is just considered as a by-product due to high indium price and low tin price. Relatively high estimated concentration levels of indium in Malaysian tin ore means that Malaysian tin refiners can withstand high degree of fluctuation of price in the free market due to hedge buying and speculation. Note that the business model for global indium market is duopoly or oligopoly but obviously not monopoly. Between duopoly and oligopoly, the most probable model is oligopoly. Thus, the potential competitors and partnership are also discussed here. Besides, LCD and low-temperature soldering and compound semiconductor are three main applications of indium which affect the indium price.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Yong, Foo Nun

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas W. Eagar.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37376

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37376