Operating rates across licensed secondary lead smelters dip on week

SHANGHAI, Jul 12 (SMM) – Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead across Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu provinces averaged 50.8% in the week ended July 12, down 1.7 percentage points from the prior week, showed an SMM survey on Friday July 12.

A brief suspension at Anhui Huabo’s phase-two production lines in the middle of the week dragged on rates. This lowered the average operating rate across Anhui’s smelters by 7.9 percentage points on the week, to 38%. 

SMM learned that the lines at Huabo have resumed as of Friday July 12, with daily production stable at 1,000 mt. 

The average rate in Henan climbed 2.5 percentage points from a week ago, to stand at 67.8%, as the end of environmental curbs in Jiyuan city prompted local smelter Henan Jinli to raise the capacity for battery scrap to 700 mt/day.

Production issues drove Henan Jinpeng into maintenance, and this capped the increase in operating rates across Henan smelters this week. 

Operating rates across smelters in Jiangsu remained unchanged at 50% this week.