Exclusive: China's primary lead output fell to 265,800 mt in April

SHANGHAI, May 10 (SMM) — China produced 265,800 mt of primary lead in April, down 5.4% from March, and up 1.43% from a year ago. For January-April, output rose 8.84% from the same period last year. Production capacities of enterprises involved in the survey stand at 5.48 million mt in total in 2021.

According to the SMM survey, primary lead smelting enterprises have entered the regular maintenance cycle since April. Among them, large smelting companies such as Henan Yuguang, Jinli, Yunnan Chihong, Western Mining and other enterprises are under maintenance. At the same time, the import of lead concentrates was blocked due to overseas pandemics, leading to a decline in TCs for domestic concentrate, rising procurement costs for lead concentrates, and increasing pressure on refinery production. TC quotations of imported ore fell $45/dmt from the previous month to $60/dmt as of the end of April. Domestic ore TCs decreased 150 yuan/metal mt from the previous month to 1800 yuan/metal mt. The second round of central environmental protection inspection teams stationed in Hunan, Yunnan and other regions to conduct inspections in April. The production of some small and medium-sized enterprises also fell slightly during this period. As a result, the overall primary lead output was lower than expectations.

China's primary lead output is expected to increase month on month in May. On the one hand, with the completion of the second round of inspections by the central environmental protection inspection team and successive withdrawals, the impact of environmental protection on the production of primary lead enterprises has been lifted. On the other hand, the maintenance of mainstream delivery brands has ended, and production has resumed in early May. In addition, the tight supply of lead concentrate is difficult to alleviate in the near term. Although it does not affect primary lead production on a large scale, its impact from the mine end to the ingot end, including supply and cost, still should be monitored. SMM expects China's primary lead output to increase over 10,000 mt to 276,000 mt in May.