Exclusive: China's secondary lead output fell to 218,000 mt in February

SHANGHAI, Mar 9 (SMM) — SMM data showed that China produced 218,000 mt of secondary lead in February, down 33.43% from January, and up 506.31% from a year ago. For January-February, output surged 235.52% from the same period last year.

SMM survey showed that most of the secondary lead smelting enterprises stopped production on holidays since February. Therefore, the output of secondary lead in February decreased from the previous month. However, at the same time, there are concerns that workers' resumption of work after the holiday is limited due to the prevention and control of the pandemic. Some secondary lead refineries kept normal production during the CNY this year, especially the newly expanded enterprises in Anhui that started production at the end of last year, such as Tianchang, Camel, Chaowei, etc. In January-February last year, when the pandemic was most severe, most of the secondary lead refining companies stopped production. Therefore, secondary lead output in February this year and the cumulative secondary lead output from January to February both increased significantly YoY.

Most secondary lead refineries have resumed work and production in March, and only a few secondary lead refineries such as Guangdong Xinsheng Environmental Protection, Inner Mongolia Senrun and Jiangxi Qijin took maintenance and delayed resumption of work. SMM expects China's secondary lead output to increase over 120,000 mt to 338,300 mt in March. What should be monitored is that the refining enterprises in Taijiang area of Guizhou are affected by the government's environmental protection control, and the resumption of work is also hindered. In addition, Shandong Zhongqing started the two-week maintenance at the end of February.