Weekly secondary lead smelters operating rate inches up 0.3 percentage point

SHANGHAI, Sep 12 (SMM) – The average operating rate across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan provinces inched up 0.3 percentage point from the prior week to 53% between September 6-12, showed an SMM survey.

Total capacity included in the survey increased to 2.082 million mt/year this week, as the second stage of Anhui Huabo has been in stable operation for half a year and Henan Jinli saw steady battery scrap processing capacity and a new production line go into operation after May 1.

This week, operating rates in Henan and Jiangsu came in at 57.6% and 58.3% respectively, both unchanged from the previous week.

The rate in Anhui rose 1.1 percentage points to 40%, as Huaxin operated for the whole week.

The discount for secondary refined lead offered by smelters widened to 300-150 yuan/mt, ex-factory, against the average price of SMM 1#, as of Thursday September 12, showed SMM assessments.

Secondary lead smelters saw decent margins, as prices of battery scrap failed to follow the recent lead price rally higher. Meanwhile, a weakening of consumption from August turned downstream consumers—lead-acid battery producers—more keen to lower their bids, leading to the wider secondary lead discounts.