Jinli repair lowers weekly operating rates across secondary lead smelters

SHANGHAI, Aug 2 (SMM) – The average operating rate across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan fell 1.9 percentage points from the previous week to stand at 53% for the week ended August 2, showed an SMM survey.

The rates for Jiangsu and Auhui remained unchanged at 50% and 55.1%, respectively, while that for Henan declined 7.7 percentage points to 56.7% as Jinli suspended for three days to repair its production line for battery scrap processing.

Lead prices dropped far more than those for battery scrap, which squeezed profit margins on secondary lead, and impacted production enthusiasm among smelters.

This, together with continued environmental probes at some regions, will keep supplies of secondary lead bullion tight in the short term.

Tight supply and recovering battery consumption narrowed the discount of secondary refined lead against primary materials. Secondary lead smelters sold their refined cargoes in a discount of 100-150 yuan/mt against the average price of SMM 1#, tax included and ex-factory, as of Friday August 2.