Primary lead smelters delayed resumption or cut production amid COVID-19 outbreak

SHANGHAI, Feb 14 (SMM) – Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces averaged 44.5% in the week ended February 14, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous week, showed an SMM survey.

Factories in China struggled to resume production amid transportation and travel restrictions as well as quarantines as the coronavirus outbreak has yet to show strong signs of easing.

Primary lead smelters who originally planned to resume production this week, decided to further delay their re-opening, while growing inventories of finished goods and shortages of storage capacity for the byproduct—sulphuric acid forced some smelters to trim output. Hunan’s Yinxing smelter began maintenance this week, which also impacted production.

Average operating rate across primary lead smelters in Henan dipped 0.6 percentage point to 62.6%, while that in Hunan fell 4.9 percentage points to 28%. Primary lead smelters in Yunnan operated at a rate of 22.5%, unchanged from last week.