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Hindustan Zinc on Monday said it has hiked the price of lead by 2.6 per cent to Rs 1.32 lakh per tonne in sync with the rise at the London Metal Exchange(LME).
“The price of lead is directly linked with the prevailing rates at the LME. Thus, it is a reflection of the movement of the lead price at the LME,” a company official said.
The reason for the recent spurt in the LME price of lead, mostly used in the manufacturing of batteries, could be traced to the rise in demand of the metal on the back of good growth of automobile sales in emerging markets like Brazil, China and India. The auto sector is also witnessing slow recovery in major markets like the US, EU and Japan.
Buoyed by auto sales growth, global demand for refined lead rose by nine per cent to 9.18 million tonnes in 2010-11 against 8.43 million tonnes a year ago. Global lead smelter production was 9.44 million tonnes in last fiscal.
The average lead price at the LME, in last fiscal, rose to $2,244 per tonne against $1,990 a tonne in 2009-10.
The Indian lead market grew by seven per cent to 3.8 lakh tonnes in 2010-11 over the previous year fuelled by the rise in the sale of auto battery on the high automobile production.
Country’s battery industry commands around 90 per cent of the Indian lead demand.
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