Estimating market potential for lead in India

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to estimate the market potential of the Indian lead market. As a matter of fact, before coming to India, I worked for an hedge fund which holds a company producing lead from old batteries. The company’s name is MB and is buying lead from collectors of old lead acid batteries. The company’s smelter is situated in France. It separates lead from the acid and the plastic which are other major components of the battery besides lead. Then the company is also able to split the lead from the other alloys contained in a battery (antimony, tin, selenium and calcium). MB melts the lead to build ingots that are sold mainly in Europe. The company production is around 25 ktons a year. The company is able to produce lead purity of 99.97% and 99.98% in accordance with the client needs. The prices are fixed with LME plus a premium depending of the negociation with the clients. The secondary lead (recycled) is one of the main way for companies to supply their lead requirement. Indeed, around 80% of the lead used in the world comes from the secondary industry.