NANNING, May 25 (SMM) – China’s lead consumption is mainly buoyed by the use of secondary lead as the country’s lead ore output has declined since 2012, according to Li Shilong, chairman of China Industrial Alliance of Renewable Energy.
Around 80% of China's annual output of refined lead is used to produce lead-acid batteries, he told delegates at the SMM Lead Zinc Summit on Friday May 25 in Nanning, Guangxi province.
Secondary lead is mostly recycled from used lead-acid batteries, Li explained.
China's lead-acid battery treatment capacity amounted to 10 million mt in 2017 across a total of 88 secondary lead producing companies, Li said. However, there was only 4 million mt of lead-acid battery scrap last year as some producers failed to comply with China’s environmental regulations, according to Li.
He believed that China needs to further standardise its secondary lead industry, by optimising the existing capacity and eliminating substandard ones.
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