SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (SMM) — The upstream and downstream companies in the lead industry chain started to arrange work for the CNY one after another, and the key factor in arranging holidays was the pandemic. The pandemic in Hebei has intensified since January, which affected regions such as Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia. Pandemic prevention work was carried out intensively. The production and logistics of enterprises in Hebei and surrounding areas was affected to varying degrees.

According to SMM survey, many secondary lead refineries, such as Zhenyu and Xingwang in Jiangxi, Xinsheng Environmental Protection and Xinyu in Guangdong, Shichang in Hebei, stopped production and had a holiday one after another this week. Non-local workers mostly chose to go home early for fear of pandemic prevention and control, and refineries had difficulty in importing and shipping and limited production due to the influence of pandemic prevention and control, especially in the northern region, so they chose to take an early holiday.

Regarding the upcoming Chinese New Year, the officials put forward suggestions that public institutions can flexibly arrange holidays and guide employees to work less and take more vacations during the CNY. Subsequently, Beijing, Shenzhen, Sichuan, Hunan and other places issued notices to encourage non-essential non-returning during the CNY and flexible vacations.

Zhejiang Province introduced policies that employees who stay in the local area during the CNY will be paid double wages, and migrant workers can receive subsidies. In Zhejiang Changxing, in order to encourage non-local employees to stay for the New Year, the local government launched an initiative that landlords will reduce rent of tenants who don't go home.

The "Notice of Pandemic Prevention Work" in Jiangsu Suzhou stated that companies that arrange for non-local employees to stay during the CNY (February 11 to February 17) will be subsidised at the rate of 500 yuan per person, and companies that arrange for non-local employees to work will be subsidised at the standard of 100 yuan per person per day. Projects with more than 100 people during the CNY will receive an additional subsidy of 100,000 yuan.

Fujian Province proposed in the proposal that non-local workers who are willing to stick to frontline positions during the CNY can enjoy day trips organised by enterprises or carry out tours around the countryside.

Under the promotion of the pandemic prevention and encouragement policies of various provinces, the CNY holiday arrangements for lead acid battery companies are also different from previous years, either early or not planning to take a holiday.

According to SMM survey, lead battery companies first consider pandemic prevention and control for the CNY holiday arrangements, followed by order status. In addition, in terms of workers, for example, the proportion of non-local workers in lead acid battery companies in Guangdong is relatively high, some of which exceed 50%, and the workers come from more places and are willing to return home. They generally plan to have a holiday at the end of January. Lead acid battery companies in Shandong and Hebei have more local workers, or arrange regular holidays or maintain production.

Compared with the CNY holiday time of lead battery companies in the past three years, the holiday time will be the longest in history in 2020 and the shortest in 2021 due to the pandemic.