Operating Rate at Chinese Lead-Acid Battery Producers Up 2.34 Percentage Points in April

Lead prices have fluctuated greatly since Q3. After continuously experiencing sharp decrease in August and September, lead prices have just ushered in a turnaround in October, but trended lower in November. As of November 30, the most-traded SHFE lead contract closed at 15,340 yuan/mt, down 2.17%.

The purchase of the lead-acid battery scrap by the secondary lead smelters recovered slowly as they suffered losses for a long time in late September.

The average operating rate across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces decreased 3.92 percentage points from September 24 to 64.02% as of Friday September 30.

Xiamen’s Port of Haicang imported 15 batches of lead-acid battery in the first four months of 2017, totaling 18,000 with value at $1.94 million.

China imported 928,800 of lead-acid batteries in March 2017, up 29.87% MoM and 3.47% YoY, and exported 14.01 million, up 85.13% MoM and down 11.71% YoY.

China’s State Council has introduced the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Plan recently.

China’s Ministry of Industry & Information Technology introduced new Regulations for Secondary Lead Industry on December 13.

Recently, Chinese leading motive battery producers are said to continue hiking prices, such as 48v20Ah battery price up to 530-540 yuan.

SMM’s survey of major Chinese tin smelters over their opinions on this week’s price outlook shows the following results.

Motive battery prices in China are forecast to fall further in the foreseeable future, SMM predicts.