SMM September 28 — According to the notice issued by the General Office of the State Council regarding the 2026 holiday arrangements, the Mid-Autumn Festival this year will observe a three-day holiday from September 25 to 27, and the National Day holiday will run for seven days from October 1 to 7.
It is understood that as the holidays approach, major lead-acid battery enterprises have been making advance arrangements accordingly. One of the key tasks is to stockpile raw material lead inventories based on the length of the holiday period to ensure production continuity. To this end, SMM has randomly surveyed the holiday schedules of 15 lead-acid battery enterprises across six provinces, with enterprise scales ranging from monthly lead consumption of one thousand tons, several thousand tons, over ten thousand tons, tens of thousands of tons, and even above one hundred thousand tons.
The "double holiday" arrangements for each enterprise are as follows:
Holiday Arrangements of Lead-Acid Battery Enterprises in 2026:
1. During the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival, over 73% of lead-acid battery enterprises observed holidays, among which enterprises taking 1 day off accounted for the majority, reaching 81%; meanwhile, approximately 26% of enterprises did not observe any holiday during the Mid-Autumn Festival period.
2. Regarding the National Day holiday, 80% of lead-acid battery enterprises planned to observe holidays, among which 50% of enterprises took 3 days off, while the remaining 20% of enterprises continued production as usual without any holiday. Compared with the 2025 holiday arrangements, fewer enterprises observed holidays this year. On the one hand, the duration of holidays was shortened, with the longest holiday being 5 days, whereas last year it reached 8 days or even 15 days. On the other hand, the number of medium-sized enterprises not observing holidays increased, while last year their holiday durations ranged from 1 to 7 days.
With the reduction in holiday time across lead-acid battery enterprises during the "double holidays" this year compared to last year, the market has raised questions: Is it due to a surge in domestic orders, or an improvement in export orders? It is understood that due to policy changes and substitution factors, overall consumption in the lead-acid battery market performed poorly in the first half of 2026, with many enterprises experiencing year-on-year declines in both production and sales. Starting from May, e-bike and automotive battery enterprises successively launched promotional campaigns for finished batteries, but these efforts initially yielded minimal results, prolonging the promotional cycle from May through August, and even continuing into September (traditionally the peak consumption season). According to feedback from lead-acid battery enterprises, orders improved in September, and apart from seasonal consumption recovery, some enterprises noted a rebound in export orders, while most other enterprises attributed the improvement largely to the sustained, long-term battery promotional campaigns. Currently, production is mainly focused on fulfilling prior orders.
