ISLC Report 1 The sixth International Secondary Lead Conference

2019.09.04 08:41

→ http://secondaryleadconference.com/agenda/

The ISLC event is held twice a year, and it is rather unusual as the conference focus is the secondary lead and related industries. It brings together secondary smelters, traders, industry organizations and researchers from China, India, Europe, Australia and South Korea. Approximately 200 people joined this ISLC. Participants from Japan were limited to around 5 companies comprised of trading houses, secondary lead smelters, lead battery manufacturers and us IR UNIVERSE. This may be due to little industry recognition of this conference. It was the first time for IR UNIVERSE to participate as well. By the way, following the ILSC, the 18th Asian Battery Conference (ABC) will be held at the same venue from the 4th to 6th. Japan’s GS Yuasa and The Furukawa Battery will be delivering presentations at the ABC.

Mark Stevensen, who chairs the two conferences, this ISLC and ABC, made the following opening remark.

“This ISLC is the sixth this year. ABC will be the 18th. The global secondary and battery metal conferences. We came together for the first time was 10 years ago (2009) in Macau. We agreed to do something about secondary lead smelting which has complicated processes but is little known. Looking back to the past five conferences, the role of secondary lead smelting continues to evolve. For several years, secondary lead was a brother to primary, but there were misconceptions that secondary material is poor, but secondary prices are beginning to take lead of that of primary. Quality-wise, secondary is at the level of that of some primary smelters.”

“Pricing mechanism of scrap batteries, that is the major feedstock for secondary lead, is similar to that of concentrate used for primary lead, and they are in the same direction.”

“Secondary smelters need to look into environmental measures. In order to rise up to global standards, they must operate with emphasis on the environment.”

“The committee members planning the agenda made great effort to make balanced programs. The program content is weighted on issues the industry faces on a day to day basis. There is a workshop that I (Mark) personally think is particularly important and that is about lead and health. Workshops ranging from smelting technologies to employee health issues under the leadership of ILA (International Lead Association) are extremely important programs. These lead and health issues are discussed globally, and industry’s undertakings have seen improvements, but still there are many issues to resolve.”

“This is an issue not limited to Asia, but is important globally.”

“Presentation of research papers. Discussions around them will allow all conference participants to increase their knowledge and gain deep knowledge of this dynamic industry.”

“Reflecting back on the path from Macau, there is still a lot to learn,” Mark said.

Stronger than expected regulatory pressure on lead

In fact, on September 2, the first day of the conference, secondary battery industry bodies and smelters from China and India delivered important presentations, and my impression was that global electrification moves (spread of EV), environmental regulations, and impacts on human body were causing lead demand to trend down. Participants from the United Nations held a severe view that lead, that has impact on well being needs to be regulated, but there were various discussions on the issue as well, including many saying lead with is steady recyclability characteristic is a sustainable resource. This is leading to stability of lead prices.

Thereby, I (author) personally felt, after the morning program on the first day, taking into account its price stability, resource availability worldwide, and recyclability, and driven by technology innovations including environmental-focused ones, and users’ choices, lead battery demand across wide sectors would remain. At the same time, I also felt the stronger than expected “waves” of regulatory pressure on lead through the conference participation.

Nevertheless, industry bodies in the US and Europe (ILA, Eurobat, BCI ABR) are strong urging them to review lead battery to protect its value chain.

I will continue to deliver more reports from the conference.