US weekly lead scrap prices climbed on Wednesday in tandem with an increase in LME Lead prices.
The official three-month LME Lead contract increased by $49/mt from Jul 14 to close at $2,346/mt today. While LME lead has been the slowest mover of the base metals complex, its prices have climbed steadily over the past month, and are reflected in the upward movement of lead scrap prices this week.
Still, supply has outpaced demand for lead scrap and whole undrained batteries. The weekly Davis Index for whole undrained batteries inched up by 0.9¢/lb to 31.8¢/lb delivered US consumer on Wednesday. The market for this grade in the Midwest remains subdued though there has been an uptick in demand for whole undrained batteries in Southern US, where bids are being heard as high as 35¢/lb.
Lead scrap prices rebounded from their losses last week with the weekly indices for heavy soft lead and mixed hard lead increasing by 0.6¢/lb and 0.5¢/lb to 86.7¢/lb delivered and 82.7¢/lb delivered US consumer, respectively.
The Davis Index Lead ingot premium remains rangebound amid a dearth of the material and climbed by 0.5¢/lb to 17.7¢/lb.