Japan Secondary Lead Refineries Seeks Higher Alloy Ingot Price

Japanese secondary lead refineries try to increase the alloyed ingot selling price to battery makers. The refineries try to raise the price from around 150,000 yen per tonne to more than 200,000 yen, at which they can export bullion under firm offshore demand. They try to improve the profitability and to secure the raw material of waste battery through the hike. The refineries make alloyed lead ingot by adding antimony and additives to lead source from waste battery. They are suffered from tight supply of waste battery due to strong offshore demand. The waste battery price increased from around 6,000 yen per tonne in early 1990s to around 30,000 yen under higher international lead ingot price. Antimony ingot price also doubled in 2 years. Despite of higher raw materials cost, the refineries got only 50% price hike for secondary alloyed lead ingot from around 100,000 tonnes in 2 years ago. Many small sized refineries are suffered from the squeeze. Japanese waste battery export increases for Vietnam and Hong Kong recent years. Domestic lead refineries try to secure the material by increasing the purchase price but they still have trouble to secure the requirement. The estimated export of waste battery decreased to 10,132 tonnes in 2006 after surge to 44,270 tonnes to Vietnam in 2005 from 2,844 tonnes in 2004. However, the export to Hong Kong increased to 19,921 tonnes in 2006 from 17,585 tonnes in 2005. The waste battery export price was averaged 42,000 yen per tonne for Vietnam in 2006 compared with maximum 35,000 yen of purchase price by domestic refineries. When the price gap encourages the export, refineries try to increase the ingot selling price and increase the battery purchase price for stable operation.