The pressure of market losses is high, and the number of secondary lead smelters reducing or halting production has increased. [SMM Analysis]

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SMM April 25 News:

Recently, the supply of waste lead-acid batteries in the market has been tight, with extremely scarce circulating sources, leading to a continuous rise in purchase offers from secondary lead smelters. However, the downstream consumer market has been sluggish, and lead-acid battery producers extended their holiday during the Labour Day holiday, resulting in a significant lack of willingness to stockpile lead ingots. Several large enterprises have ended their raw material reserves early, and the willingness to purchase spot orders is also low. At the same time, secondary lead smelters have maintained firm offers due to high costs, making downstream enterprises more inclined to purchase from the primary lead market, further weakening the market competitiveness of secondary lead. Against the backdrop of overall sluggish trading, the transaction situation of secondary refined lead has become increasingly weak.

As the competitive pressure on raw materials continues to increase, secondary lead smelters have had to raise purchase offers to maintain the arrivals of waste lead-acid batteries. However, the rebound in lead prices has been far less than the increase in scrap battery prices, leading to further expansion of smelter losses. The current situation of weak supply and demand and no profits has significantly reduced the production enthusiasm of secondary lead smelting enterprises, with frequent news of production cuts or shutdowns recently.

Below is a summary of the production situation of some secondary lead smelters recently compiled by SMM.

More specific and detailed production schedules for April-May will be updated soon, so stay tuned to SMM's reports.