Weekly operating rates at primary lead smelters rise 1 percentage point

SHANGHAI, Aug 23 (SMM) – Chinese primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces operated at an average higher rate this week as production disrupted by last week’s heavy rainfall in Henan has recovered. 

An SMM survey showed that the average operating rate across primary lead smelters in Henan rose 2 percentage points from the previous week to stand at 79.1% in the week ended Friday August 23.

The rate across Henan, Hunan and Yunnan averaged 61.4% in the week through Friday August 23, up 1 percentage point on the week, with the average rate in Yunnan and Hunan unchanged at 42.8% and 43.4%, respectively. 

An SMM survey showed that Inner Mongolia Xing’an Sliver & Lead and Yunnan Mengzi planned to conduct regular maintenance for a month in September, which may affect monthly production by a total of 15,000 mt. No maintenance plan has been heard from other smelters so far.