Exclusive: China's primary lead output rose to 280,900 mt in March

SHANGHAI, Apr 9 (SMM) — China produced 280,900 mt of primary lead in March, up 12.17% from February, and up 17.23% from a year ago. For January-March, output rose 11.57% from the same period last year. Production capacities of enterprises involved in the survey will stand at 5.48 million mt in total in 2021.

According to the SMM survey, the full month of March (natural days) is 31 days, an increase of 3 days compared to February. Due to the increase in working days for refined lead smelting enterprises, lead ingot output rose month on month to varying degrees, ranging from 300-500 mt to 2000-3000 mt. At the same time, Henan Minshan, Hunan Jingui, Huaxin, Xing'an Silver and Lead and other enterprises have completed the equipment maintenance and resumed production. Therefore, primary lead output increased significantly by more than 30,000 mt in March.

In addition, compared with last year, output increased by 17.23% year on year. The production capacities of some primary lead companies expanded compared with previous years. On the other hand, due to the recovery period after the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year, the resumption progress of some smelting companies was slightly delayed.

There are ongoing maintenance and recovery of primary lead smelting enterprises in April. For example, Yunnan Chihong and Western Mining will take a one-month maintenance. Henan Yuguang plans to on maintenance for 20 days. Yunnan Zhenxing plans to take a 40-day maintenance, but only for crude refining inspections, which has relatively limited impact on primary lead output. In addition, some small and medium-sized enterprises in Hunan, Yunnan and other regions have resumed production. If they resume smoothly, a single enterprise can contribute 2,000-3,000 mt of monthly output. SMM expects China's primary lead output to remain at 283,000 mt in April.