(Yicai Global) May 26 -- Zhang Tianren, chairman of green electric vehicle power battery maker Tianneng Group and deputy of China’s National People’s Congress, proposed during the Two Sessions that China should create secondary lead ingot futures.

This would make licensed secondary lead companies more competitive and help squeeze out illegal production sites, Zhang said, adding that this is crucial to high-quality development of the secondary lead industry, which largely involves recycling lead from old batteries.

The Two Sessions, or Lianghui, are the concurrent annual meetings of China’s national legislature and top political advisory body and combined are the country’s biggest political event of the year. Delayed this year because of Covid-19, the event began on May 22 and will wrap up on May 28.

China’s output of secondary nonferrous metals was about 14.4 million tons in 2019, a 1.9 percent annual gain, according to figures from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association’s Recycling Metal Branch. Recycled lead output was 2.37 million tons, up 5.3 percent from 2018.

The futures would keep illegally made products out of the spot market and improve the market share of regulated recyclers, Zhang continued, saying licensed players could then help for form industry standards.

He also believes the futures would stabilize prices and give brick-and-mortar companies more confidence in manufacturing, and help firms making primary lead, secondary lead, and batteries hedge against risk.

Editor: James Boynton