Weekly Review of Lead Concentrates Market (August 04, 2025 - August 08, 2025) [SMM Weekly Review of Lead Concentrates]

This week, lead concentrate TCs remained stable overall, but processing fees for lead concentrates rich in gold and silver and silver-lead ores with high silver content continued to face downward pressure. In the domestic market, there were significant differences in quoted prices between the north and south regions. In north China, due to routine maintenance at some smelters in Q3, the pressure on raw material supply was alleviated. Smelters in Henan, Inner Mongolia, and other regions indicated that the prices of low-silver lead concentrates were expected to remain stable, with no further downward trend. However, in Hunan, Yunnan, and Guangxi, some smelters had to reduce processing fees or slightly adjust production plans to ensure raw material supply due to decreased raw material inventory, while those with sufficient raw material reserves did not make adjustments to processing fees. In terms of imports, for low-silver imported lead ores with silver content below 200g/dmt, there were more pb60TC quotes in the market, with some suppliers offering prices ranging from -$100 to -$80/dmt, but actual transaction prices were mostly concentrated between -$60 to -$70/dmt. Regarding the payable indicator for silver, the payable indicator for high-silver lead ores had been raised to the upper limit of 0.94-0.95 recently. However, due to the scarcity of silver-lead ores and expectations for stronger precious metal prices in H2, it was difficult for the payable indicator for silver to show a downward trend after being raised.