Exclusive: China's secondary lead output rose to 331,200 mt in May

SHANGHAI, Jun 9 (SMM) — SMM data showed that China produced 331,200 mt of secondary lead in May, up 7.73% from April, and up 34.55% from a year ago. For January-May, output surged 109.14% from the same period last year.

SMM survey showed that the output of secondary lead rose more than expected in May. The main reasons were that environmental protection inspections in Hebei, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places gradually ended, some secondary lead smelting enterprises resumed production, and output gradually rebounded. On the other hand, the centralisd maintenance of large-scale secondary lead refineries such as Anhui Camel and Dahua successively ended in May, and the output increased sharply from the previous month. At the same time, newly-expanded projects such as Anhui Huaxin and Tianjin Dongbang continued to contribute to the increase. Therefore, although Anhui Huabo took maintenance and reduced production, and Jiangxi Fengri renewed its license and halted production, the output of secondary lead refineries increased significantly from the previous month.

The impact of environmental protection inspectors' production restrictions has been further reduced in June. Refineries such as Dahua and Fengri have completed the maintenance or certificate renew, and output has further recovered. However, Anhui Chaowei took maintenance. SMM expects China's secondary lead output to increase slightly by about 5,000 mt to 335,700 mt in June.