Battery production in China is picking up again after a sluggish start to 2017.
Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reports some Chinese battery producers are increasing their production levels by 10-20% as demand turns positive again.
The turnaround comes after two of the country’s leading lead-acid battery producers announced price hikes for their motive batteries. The increases of ¥30-50 ($4.4-7.3) put a 48V/20Ah battery above the ¥500 ($73.3) mark.
The fear of further price rises, it seems, has spurred distributors into rebuilding their stocks of batteries again.
Earlier this year, some lead-acid battery producers cut or halted production and gave their workers five- to seven-day holidays for the Qingming Festival and May Day, but for the end-of-May Dragon Boat Festival holidays were restricted to the more usual one to three days, SMM reported.