Secondary Crude Lead Inventory Held by Smelters Dropped Slightly in January

SHANGHAI, Feb 15 (SMM) - The secondary crude lead inventory held by secondary lead smelters totalled 4,100 mt in January, a slight drop of 2,400 mt MoM, while the combined inventory of secondary refined lead and alloy rose 10,600 mt to 33,000 mt. The inventory of finished secondary lead fell slightly by 8,400 mt to 37,200 mt.

In January, the inventory of domestic secondary lead smelters is expected to increase since most smelters maintain normal production during the CNY holiday. However, the market demand weakened as downstream lead-acid battery enterprises restocked in advance and took a short holiday for CNY. The inventory of finished products of secondary lead smelters increased in January, but the actual data is collected in this week. The inventory of smelters that mainly ship in the form of long-term orders declined sharply in light of recovery of downstream demand, while the inventory of smelters that mainly ship in the form of small orders changed little. The overall inventory declined significantly compared with that during CNY holiday. According to SMM statistics, the finished products of secondary lead smelter hit the highest point at 62,300 mt on January 27 during the CNY holiday.