Lead-acid battery makers operating rates extended decline amid sluggish consumption

SHANGHAI, Apr 17 (SMM) – Operating rates across Chinese lead-acid battery plants continued to decline this week, as a traditional low season arrived and COVID-19 knocked foreign demand.

An SMM survey showed that operating rate across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces averaged 62.74% in the week ended April 17, down 0.73 percentage point from last week.

Demand for electric bike batteries failed to pick up as expected in the back-to-school season and now has entered a traditional low season.

It is also a low season for batteries used in automobiles. That, coupled with foreign demand losses caused by COVID-19, forced some storage battery producers to scale back operations.

Exports of communication batteries have also taken a hit from the pandemic, and some Chinese producers have trimmed output by 20-30%.