Off-season impact continues; lead-acid battery enterprises mostly produce based on sales [SMM Weekly Lead-acid Battery Operating Rate Review]

        It is understood that from May 10 to May 16, 2025, the weekly composite operating rate of lead-acid battery enterprises in the five provinces monitored by SMM was 72.66%, up 7.87 percentage points WoW from the previous week.

        This week, the impact of the Labour Day holiday on lead-acid battery enterprises has largely subsided, with major enterprises gradually resuming production. However, as the current market is still in the traditional off-season, producers are generally adopting a produce-based-on-sales strategy, and even a few enterprises have reduced their production line operating rates after resuming production. In addition, a small number of enterprises in Henan, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces were on holiday for nearly half a month and only began to resume production this week. The main reason for such a prolonged production halt by these enterprises is the sluggish order situation, coupled with the cumulative increase in finished product inventories, factors such as the domestic off-season, and export obstacles. Currently, among various types of batteries, the consumer performance of the ESS battery sector remains the most outstanding. Relying on order increments from sources such as mobile base stations and data centers, the operating rates of production lines for these enterprises have mostly reached full capacity, with a few operating at 80-90%. It is expected that the order situation will remain favorable in H2, with individual enterprises planning to expand production and increase output.