The Davis Index for lead batteries (drained) Wednesday settled at Rs81,083/mt ($1,097.05/mt) del Delhi consumer, flat from the previous week as market trades remained unchanged from the prior week in Delhi.
The Davis Index for secondary lead ingot in Delhi was almost flat with a marginal uptick of Rs7/mt to Rs140,840/mt ex-works producer from the prior week levels. Lead ingot prices in the past four-weeks in Delhi have moved in a narrow range of Rs140,000-141,000/mt ex-works producer price.
Manufacturers said that market is in an equilibrium state and the LME lead gain is failing to influence the prices. Also, domestic manufacturers of secondary lead ingot are unlikely to raise prices further as import of the ingot is around $1,900-1,940/mt cif India port which is quite close to the domestic prices.
The Davis Index for lead batteries (drained) for Mumbai Wednesday settled at Rs82,100/mt del consumer, up by Rs110/mt from a week prior. Smelters activities were temporarily halted in the prior week due to Diwali which led to slightly thicker trades on Wednesday compared to previous Diwali week in Mumbai.
The Davis Index for secondary lead ingot in Mumbai settled at Rs140,690/mt, slightly higher by Rs23/mt from the previous week on the back of firm demand. Even if demand for secondary lead ingots increases, the prices may only slightly rise as import prices of secondary lead ingots will keep domestic prices in check.
The official three-month LME is up by $99.5/mt to $2,021/mt on Tuesday from a week ago but global scrap and ingot prices remained largely indifferent to the contract’s gain. Domestic market has weakened in terms of spreads compared to the prior week. For lead batteries (drained) index, the spread has widened by 2.51pc in Mumbai from the previous week and by 2.56pc for Delhi scrap battery index. For secondary lead ingot indexes for Delhi and Mumbai, spread has contracted by more than 4pc from the previous week.
($1=Rs73.19)