Lead: Characteristics
Dense, soft and acid-proof: the perfect battery metal
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 4.5 Mt mine output (2025e); 13.3 Mt refined (2025 forecast) | Refined output is about three times mine output because roughly two-thirds comes from recycled batteries. China mined 1.9 Mt, 42% of the world. | USGS MCS 2026; ILZSG via USGS |
| Inventory and stock levels | LME warehouses held 217 kt at end-October 2025, about 6 days of world use | Use was about 13.25 Mt in 2025, about 36 kt a day (derived). Stocks were 10% lower than at end-2024. Battery makers and smelters hold working stocks of scrap batteries and metal. | USGS MCS 2026; ILZSG via USGS; derived |
| Capacity utilisation | not published in the sources used | Refined output (13.3 Mt) and use (13.25 Mt) were nearly balanced in 2025. Secondary smelters depend on the flow of spent batteries; the US exported 23 million spent batteries in January-August 2025, up 23%, because it lacks smelting capacity. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China 40.6%, top-3 (China, Australia, Mexico) 58.0%, HHI 1,952 (mine) | Secondary supply is spread across many battery recyclers. Glencore produced 178.9 kt of own-sourced lead in 2025 and Hindustan Zinc 225 kt of refined lead in FY2025. A top-5 company share is not published. | World Mining Data 2026; company reports via this tile's lessons |
| Supply elasticity | primary: low, set by zinc mining; secondary: high, set by battery scrap flows | Few mines are worth operating for lead alone, so mine supply follows zinc. Recycling responds to price and to the battery replacement cycle of about 3-5 years. | Tilton and Guzman 2016; this tile's lessons |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | little new primary capacity; growth in formal secondary smelting | New lead output comes mainly as a by-product of zinc projects such as Hermosa in Arizona. In India, formal recyclers such as Gravita are adding capacity as Battery Waste Management Rules 2022 push batteries into the formal sector (indicative). | USGS MCS 2026; Ministry of Environment, BWMR 2022 (indicative) |
| Logistics and export flows | refined lead exports worth $7.0 billion and lead concentrate $5.5 billion in 2024 | India is the largest importer and exporter of refined lead by value (2024). Concentrate moves from Peru, Mexico, the US and Australia to China and Korea. Spent batteries are hazardous waste, and their cross-border trade is restricted under the Basel Convention. | UN Comtrade 2024; this tile's lessons |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Lead is dense, soft, has a low melting point and resists sulphuric acid, which makes it ideal for lead-acid batteries, the main use. It blocks X-rays and gamma rays. Purity and alloy content (antimony or calcium) decide battery performance. Its toxicity sets strict rules on handling and recycling.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | LME lead: at least 99.970% Pb (BS EN 12659 PB970R) | Sets deliverability and suitability for battery oxide | LME; BS EN 12659 |
| Density | 11.34 g/cm3 | Radiation shielding, ballast and cable sheathing | ASM Handbook |
| Melting point | 327.5 C | Cheap to cast into grids and to recycle | ASM Handbook |
| Strength | soft: about 12-17 MPa tensile, so it is alloyed | Pure lead creeps; alloys stiffen battery grids | ASM Handbook (indicative) |
| Alloy content | battery grids: lead-calcium (about 0.06-0.1% Ca) or lead-antimony (about 1.5-3% Sb) | Calcium alloys give maintenance-free batteries | Industry practice (indicative) |
| Corrosion resistance | resists sulphuric acid by forming lead sulphate | Core of lead-acid battery chemistry | ASM Handbook (indicative) |