Equipment breakdown lowers weekly operating rates at primary lead smelters by 2.9 percentage points

SHANGHAI, Aug 30 (SMM) – Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces averaged 58.5% in the week ended August 30, down 2.9 percentage points from the prior week, showed an SMM survey, as equipment breakdown affected production at some plants in Hunan and Yunnan.

The average operating rate across smelters in Yunnan dropped 11.8 percentage points to 31%, and that for Hunan slipped 2 percentage points to 41.4%.

Primary lead smelters in Henan operated at an unchanged rate of 79.1% this week.

SMM learned that the facilities are unlikely to be repaired in the near term.

Yunnan Mengzi began maintenance this week, and Inner Mongolia Xing’an Silver & Lead will also conduct maintenance in the coming month. Those month-long maintenance works are estimated to impact output by a combined volume of 15,000 mt.

Jiangxi Copper and Henan Wanyang also may undertake maintenance, but details remain unclear.