Weekly Brief Review of the Lead Concentrate Market (December 1, 2025 - December 5, 2025) [SMM Lead Concentrate Weekly Review]

The lead concentrate market remained stable this week, with imported ore continuing to show a tight trend. Significant differences persisted in the specific price negotiations for 2026 long-term contracts. In the domestic ore trading market, as most smelters had pre-booked lead concentrate supply orders for Q4 in advance, offers for circulating cargoes were scarce in the market. Mine offers were primarily focused on pre-sales for 2026, with individual mines having already completed tenders and bids for lead concentrates in H1 2026. Following the arrival of imported ore under long-term contracts at smelters in Henan, Inner Mongolia, and other regions, domestic procurement demand experienced a slight decline. TCs for smelters in southern regions such as Jiangxi, Hunan, and Yunnan remained low. However, due to factors including maintenance shutdowns or lack of full production plans at some plants, there were no clear signs of a further decline in lead concentrate TCs in the market. According to SMM, the decline in lead concentrate TCs for most parties was related to the inability to further increase the payable indicator for associated metals. Consequently, TCs for low-silver lead concentrates and crude lead with minimal associated metals remained stable. Silver prices once again hit record highs, yet the payable indicator for silver concentrates (containing 4,000-5,000g/mt in physical content of silver) in the ore trading market was not adjusted further. Some market traders exhibited cautious sentiment towards high silver prices, leading to a lack of significant adjustments in the payable indicator for silver contained in silver-lead ores of other grades as well.