Secondary lead smelters operating rates steady as scrap supply remain tight

SHANGHAI, Apr 24 (SMM) – Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou held steady at 49.6% in the week ended April 24, showed an SMM survey.

Secondary lead smelter operations have resided at the current level for three consecutive weeks, as demand remains weak while scrap supply tightness fails to ease.

The respective operating rates at secondary lead smelters in all the four regions also remained unchanged, standing at 65.1% in Guizhou, 53.3% in Jiangsu, 45.5% in Henan and 40% in Anhui.

While large lead-acid battery producers did not scale back on operations, they were cautious about purchasing refined lead, given sluggish end-user consumption and high inventories of finished goods.

That, coupled with continued tightness in scrap supply, deterred secondary lead smelters from stepping up production.