Japanese Secondary Pb Makers Offer Price Hike to Battery Makers

Japanese secondary lead ingot makers are asking for price hike against battery makers. Ingot makers are suffered from worse profitability due to cost upsurge for used battery. Market price of used battery has risen since South Korean importers aggressively offered high purchasing price. Secondary lead ingot is used for battery electrode plates.

Japanese used battery export price to South Korea has exceeded domestic market price widely since spring 2009. Domestic secondary lead ingot makers are sometimes forced to pay unprofitable cost in order to secure enough volume of used battery.

A secondary lead ingot maker around Tokyo said they need to sustain the material cost averagely below 50 yen per kilogram to gain refining charge and profit but, in fact, the market price is still near 60 yen at the highest level.

Battery makers are also concerned about low profitability. Demand for repair battery was inactive due to cool summer despite of the yearly demand season. A major battery maker explained they needed to adjust output volume in September because of inventory increase in August.

Battery makers are going to raise their productions in October and November toward the next demand season of winter. However, according to a maker source, the demand is expected not to increase so much under slow economy. The source said the price gap might shrink to 10% from conventional 20% between primary lead ingot and secondary lead ingot if battery makers accept the price hike. Price advantage of secondary ingot may weaken.