Battery Pricing [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

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Hello Jeff,

Lead prices are up partly because of speculation but mostly because of 
increased demand.

See http://www.basemetals.com/html/pbinfo.htm
and http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical_large.html#5years
and http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/05/bloomberg/bxcom.php

China and India entering the automotive age are an important factor. See 
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=50912542373621

I am reminded of the 1968 book, The Population Bomb, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb (world population has 
tripled in my lifetime and famine is happening but is not pandemic) and the 
1972 Limits of Growth Study, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limits_to_Growth 
(over-population, industrialization, resource depletion, pollution are 
happening but not as predicted) and the 1975 essay, Sharing Smaller Pies. 
See http://www.tombender.org/societyworthlivingforarticles/smallerpies.html 
(slaves to energy are now officially addicted to oil).

In Los Angeles battery thieves cruise the streets looking for old cars and 
pickup trucks because their hoods are easy to open and they usually don't 
have alarms. Tires, radios, catalytic converters and whole cars are stolen 
for parts, but that's another story.

Bottom line is if you shop around to buy SLI or deep-cycle batteries, all 
the reliable suppliers' prices are pretty much the same.

Joel Davidson
(Michael Welch says when forwarding messages from Topica lists, unless the 
Topica footers are edited out, the email will contain a link that someone 
can use to delete you from the list, either accidentally or maliciously. I 
have also try to remember to delete wrenches' email addresses.)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Yago"
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 7:01 AM
Subject: RE: Battery Pricing [RE-wrenches]


>
> Since this site can be read by non-members, I realize it is not always a 
> good idea to discuss our specific material costs. However, what's going on 
> with battery prices?
>
> Our supplier has increased battery prices to us 3 times since September 
> with another large increase at end of December. They say its due to a 
> world wide shortage of lead. I have seen many articles that say lead-acid 
> batteries are almost 100% recycled and any battery you buy today is 
> actually made with recycled lead, not newly mined lead. The only reason 
> for a shortage must be major increase in demand, but I have not seen an 
> increase so drastic that would explain these increases with promises for 
> more increases to come soon.
>
> What's going on - stock speculation in the lead market?
>
> Jeff Yago
> DTI Solar
>


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