SHANGHAI, Oct 25 (SMM) – Chinese lead-acid battery producers further scaled back operations this week, as orders weakened from a high season.

An SMM survey showed that operating rates across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces averaged 56.83% in the week ending October 25, down 0.16 percentage point from the prior week, marking a second straight week of decline.

Consumption of electric bike batteries continued to weaken as high season ended. While there has not yet been any significant increase in inventories of finished goods, battery producers reined in production on pessimistic prospects for consumption.

Consumption of batteries used to ignite automobiles saw no better performance.

Producers of automotive batteries are likely to struggle to deplete their inventories of finished goods, in view of weaker distributor purchasing power as inventories at some distributors have increased to two months with the arrivals of shipments ordered in a rising market.