The coronavirus has forced Recylex to reduce operations at its French used lead-acid battery recycling plants to: maintenance, reception and expedition of planned deliveries, until further notice starting 23 March.
Operations at the French firm’s other battery recycling plant Harz-Metall in Germany is unaffected. The plant collects and recycles around 50,000 tons of lead-acid batteries a year.
As a group, Recylex recycles around 10 million batteries a year in Europe, and produces around 105,000 tonnes of lead.
The company has also postponed scheduled maintenance of its German smelter Weser-Metall (WMG) until later this year. It is due to be shutdown in March instead of June as originally planned.
The plant is due for maintenance after the company noticed “significantly advanced wear and tear of its main furnace refractory bricks to the evolution of the smelter’s feeder mix with more abrasive materials”.