Lead-acid battery producers extend production cuts as consumption fails to improve

SHANGHAI, Jun 28 (SMM) – Lead-acid battery producers in China continued their production limitations from last week, and held stable operations this week, as the absence of improvement in consumption and weak lead prices kept distributors cautious about purchasing.

Hardly any lead-acid battery producers operated at full capacity, with most operating at 50-70%. Several small and medium-sized plants in Jiangxi province even suspended their polar plate production lines for 2-3 days to rein in inventories of finished goods.

The average operating rate across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hebei remained unchanged at 48% in the week to Friday June 28, showed an SMM survey.

In view of high inventories of finished goods, some plants plan to deepen their production cuts by some 10% in July, SMM learned.