April 23, 2020: Battery makers in China are slowing production, the Shanghai Metals Market reported on April 17, partly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but also because traditionally this is a low season anyway.

Operating rates across lead battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hebei provinces averaged 0.73 of a percentage point lower than the week before at 62.74% of full capacity, the SMM said.

Normally electric bikes would provide a market in what the SMM called ‘back-to-school demand’ after the Spring festival in February, but that failed to pick up and has now moved into the traditional low season.

Battery makers have been forced to scale back operations, the SMM said, and exports of communication batteries have also taken a hit from the virus, with some Chinese producers trimming output by up to 30%.

Dong Li, owner and chairman of Leoch Battery, the fourth largest lead battery maker in China, said the demand was certainly lower but he believed it was beginning to rebound, especially from developed countries.

“They have good anti-disaster capability,” he said. “But we can tell that developing areas will take a longer time – perhaps much longer – to recover fully.”

China is reported to have re-opened the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province, which is home to a large portion of the country’s battery makers and is believed to be where the Covid-19 virus first broke out.

Reprinted from:https://www.batteriesinternational.com/2020/04/23/china-sees-slowdown-in-lead-battery-production-in-traditional-low-season/(If there is any infringement liability, please inform us in time, we will delete the content immediately, thank you.)