According to Mysteel's statistics, lead ingot output of China's domestic licensed secondary lead enterprises reached 320,700 tonnes in October, and the capacity utilization rate was 52.49%. This survey covered 60 domestic secondary lead enterprises, involving 7.195 million tonnes of secondary lead capacity, accounting for 83% of total national secondary lead capacity.
Data Source: Mysteel
The output in October increased by 29,600 tonnes compared with that in September, up by 10.15% month on month, 21,600tonnes or 7.23% more than expected. The reasons for the substantial increase in output were as follows. 1). Secondary lead smelters' output in Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Henan climbed up since they gradually made profits after 2-3 months' losses; 2). New capacity of two enterprises in Hebei and Henan put into production which increased national total output; 3). An enterprise in Sichuan resumed production on the improvement of the epidemic and industry market situation; 4). An enterprise in Anhui raised production in the second half of October to increase output.
Secondary lead inventory in enterprises was 17,100 tonnes in October, up by 1,100 tonnes or 6.87% month on month. Even though finished product plant inventories declined in Henan and Anhui due to improving terminal demand and active purchasing of lead ingots by battery factories, Ningxia delivered finished products with difficulty on blocked transportation because of the serious epidemic, which was the main reason for the inventory increase.
Data Source: Mysteel
Secondary lead output is expected to increase slightly to 330,900 tonnes in November. Despite output in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan would be affected by the epidemic, financial problems, insufficient raw materials supply, and equipment maintenance, but some enterprises in Guangdong and Anhui will resume production in November after the completion of the certificate replacement and maintenance, and other enterprises in Henan and Anhui maintain their production stably and output will increase greater in November.
Written by Durand Du, duxiaoyu@mysteel.com
Edited by Paula Xu, xuzhongping@mysteel.com