Anhui smelter recovery grows operating rates across licensed sec lead smelters

SHANGHAI, Jul 5 (SMM) – Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead across Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu provinces averaged 52.5% in the week ended July 5, up 5.4 percentage points from the prior week, showed an SMM survey on Friday July 5.

This was driven by a major smelter, Anhui Huabo who recovered from maintenance and began raw materials feeding and trial production on Wednesday July 3.

Huabo’s resumption lifted the average operating rate across licensed secondary lead smelters in Anhui by 27.5 percentage points to 45.9%.

Rates in Henan, however, lost 10.1 percentage points to 65.3% this week, as smog control measures in Jiyuan affected Jinli smelter’s capacity for battery scrap. Jinli this week only processed 600 mt of battery scrap per day, down from the usual 800 mt per day.

Operating rates across smelters in Jiangsu remained unchanged at 50% this week.