China to cut lead-acid battery recyclers

(Reuters) - China will cut the number of firms it allows to recycle lead-acid batteries for refined lead production, a top industry official said on Sunday.

Industry sources estimate China will only allow around 20 battery recyclers to operate in the future, compared with the many hundreds of firms currently operating.

"The government will do it for sure in the future," Cao Guoqing, vice general secretary of the China Battery Industry Association, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province.

He did not say when the government was likely to introduce the regulations, but said it aims to improve environmental standards in the battery industry, the top user of refined lead in China.

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of refined lead.

By 2015, China's production of lead-acid batteries will hit 240 million kilowatt hours, double 2009 levels, Cao estimated.

China used 2.35 million tonnes of refined lead for lead-acid battery production in 2009, accounting for about 70 percent of the country's total refined lead consumption that year, he said.

The country's recycled refined lead production will rise to 1.75 million tonnes in 2011, 1.93 million tonnes in 2012, and 2.69 million tonnes in 2015, from 1.49 million tonnes in 2010 and 1.24 million tonnes in 2009, he said.

China's refined lead production, including primary and recycled metal, may reach near 3.9 million tonnes this year and above 4.2 million tonnes in 2011, state-backed research firm Antaike predicted at the weekend.