SMM, April 30:
Last Saturday, secondary lead smelters in major production areas lowered their raw material purchase quotes. Scrap battery recyclers, fearing further price declines, rushed to sell their inventory. Some enterprises even achieved a daily trading volume of 5,000 mt for scrap batteries. After the recyclers sold their inventory, the available supply was transferred to the in-plant inventory of some smelters, and the supply of waste lead-acid batteries in the market remained scarce. This week, the arrivals of scrap batteries have been sluggish, and smelters have once again raised their purchase prices. Currently, the market price for tax-excluded scrap e-bike lead-acid batteries ranges from 9,900 to 10,150 yuan/mt.
After production cuts at secondary lead smelters, the supply of secondary crude lead has become even tighter, and suppliers are holding firm on their quotes, which are basically higher than the prices of secondary refined lead, making it difficult for downstream alloy smelters to purchase. As a result, trading volume has been minimal this week. It is currently estimated that the market supply of available secondary crude lead is less than 1,000 mt.
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