Social inventories of lead ingots expanded 2,300 mt on week

SHANGHAI, Oct 30 (SMM)—Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin rose 2,300 mt from the previous week to 29,400 mt as of Friday October 30.

This week, more secondary lead smelters reduced output, mainly secondary crude lead output, due to thin profits and shortage of battery scrap, but this has yet to post great impact on supply of secondary refined lead. Meanwhile, most of the downstream users purchased only as required, with both secondary refined lead and refined lead still sold at deep discounts. In addition, as lead prices rebounded, some traders tended to delivery cargoes to social warehouses.

Lead social inventories are expected to be stable next week, as some refined lead smelters will recover from maintenance while the effect of output cuts at secondary lead smelters will show up.