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To: LoneClone who wrote (41893)	8/20/2009 6:44:40 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193757

China Yuguang to boost lead capacity by nearly a third by Reuters News on 20 August 2009, 11:32 AM communities.thomsonreuters.com * China's Yuguang to boost lead capacity nearly a third * Yuguang, Western Mining to complete new lead smelter by yr-end * Yunnan Tin will complete new lead smelter next year By Polly Yam HONG KONG, Aug 20 (Reuters) - China's top lead producer, Yuguang Gold and Lead, is boosting refined lead capacity by nearly a third before the end of the year, counting on battery demand to rise in the world's top lead producing nation, a company official said on Thursday. The construction of a 100,000-tonne-a-year facility in Henan province used Yuguang's new environmental-friendly production technology and would boost the firm's refining capacity to 450,000 tonnes a year, from 350,000 tonnes now. "In 2010, we should be producing 450,000 tonnes of refined lead," said the official, who did not expect a domestic lead surplus to increase as demand from the battery sector, the biggest lead user in China, rose. To feed increasing refining capacity, Yuguang and Western Mining are building a 100,000-tonne-a-year lead smelter in Qinghai province. Yuguang would take 50,000 tonnes of crude lead from that joint venture, the official said. "That (smelted) material will help us run full production." Yuguang was also building a 100,000-tonne-a-year facility in Henan to produce recycled lead, which would be up and running in the first half of next year. That facility would annually provide 80,000 tonnes of recycled material for the firm's refined lead production as feed and 20,000 tonnes of lead alloy, the official said. China's top tin producer, Yunnan Tin, will also finish building a 100,000-tonne-a-year lead smelter next year in Yunnan province, a company source said, adding that the firm was also working on a project for a 100,000-tonne copper smelter. Including Yuguang, large lead producers were expecting Chinese lead prices to rise from October when production at battery makers rises, traders said. Large producers were already limiting spot supplies, hoping to push up prices above 15,000 yuan, which will be 11 percent higher than spot prices in Shanghai on Thursday. "People are bullish on prices in October," a trader in Shanghai said. Dongling Group's closure of lead production in Shaanxi province was also supporting the rosy forecast, he added. China's explosion in car usage could last a few years, given the country's car ownership is relatively low, analysts have estimated. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)