Secondary lead smelters operating rates steady, battery plants restocked limitedly

SHANGHAI, Apr 30 (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 30, showed an SMM survey.

Secondary lead smelters operations have remained at the current level for the fourth consecutive week, with downstream lead-acid battery mills only in some regions restocking before the Labour Day holiday. 

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

Only large-scale battery producers have plans to stockpile before the holiday, as medium-scale and small battery mills plan to take a break up to five days. This saw transactions of secondary lead diverged in different regions. Trades were active in Guangdong, Guizhou and Hubei where ex-work prices stood relatively low, while tepid trades were seen in other regions.