US weekly lead scrap prices were rangebound on Wednesday in tandem with a muted LME Lead market.
LME Lead prices inched up during the week with the official three-month LME Lead contract closing Wednesday at $2,034.50/mt up by $36/mt from Apr 14 and touching a new high since it peaked at $1,969/mt in early April. Still, activity on LME Lead has been sluggish compared to other base metal prices, which have soared over the past two weeks.
Restricted LME Lead trading along with balanced physical supply and demand has kept lead scrap prices rangebound for the second successive week with the weekly Davis Index for heavy soft lead inching up by 0.2¢/lb to 79.4¢/lb delivered US consumer, while hard lead remained unchanged at 75.7¢/lb delivered.
The weekly Davis Index lead ingot premium increased by half a penny to 15.8¢/lb delivered US consumer on Wednesday on a continued shortage of refined lead. Most suppliers are sold out and the few offers in the market are being heard at more than 16¢/lb, though the material is hard to come by even for buyers who are ready to pay higher prices for it.
The index for Whole undrained batteries inched up by 0.8¢/lb to 31.8¢/lb delivered US consumer on Wednesday amid abundant supply.