Concerns about the U.S. economy couldn't keep many commodities down in the second quarter.
Lead jumped 37% to $2,645 a ton on the London Metal Exchange. One factor is continued strong demand in Asia for lead-acid batteries for cars and industrial equipment. Prices also jumped in the wake of shipment delays from a major Australian port and a change in China's tax policy that could decrease its lead exports.
With historically low metal inventories, when a supply shock comes, "prices don't know much of a limit," said Catherine Virga, a CPM senior research analyst.
Lead consumption slowed in the 1980s and 1990s amid links to health risks and substitution of other ingredients for it in paints and pipes. "Lead consumers that are left, especially the battery producers, which account for 80% of all lead consumption, have very few alternatives," according to a report by the Barclays Capital unit of Barclays PLC.
-Wall Street Journal
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