Lead price

How do we get the price of lead?

The price of lead depends on multiple factors. For the most part, the price is determined by the market. The more demand, the more expensive lead is per kilo. When there is more supply than demand, you will see the market price go down.

There is also a huge difference in quality. Standard lead is the cheapest, but if you want lead sheets, then you get to pay more per kilo. The good thing is, that it is very easy to reshape it for different purposes. This makes industrial usage a lot easier as well.

It is best to check the price every day. Because during the day, the price fluctuates and that can save you sometimes up to 10 cents per kilo.

What countries produce lead?

China is the biggest producer of lead with a yearly production of 2000 tons, which also often has the lowest price per kilogram.

In Australia, Peru and the United States lead is produced daily as well. But the production in these countries is way less. When adding the production of all these countries you will still only get half of what China produces.

Facts about the raw material lead

Fact 1: More and more sheet lead is being used for closing up cracks in houses. This leads to big energy savings.
Facts 2: Lead is very bendable, and this makes it easy to create different objects.
Fact 3: In batteries, lead is used as a conductor.
Fact 4: In deep water, lead can be used to protect against corrosion.
Fact 5: Lead can be used as solder connection in electronical equipment.
Fact 6: Did you know that lead has been used since 5000 before Christ?
Fact 7: Chemically, lead is the 82^nd atom and known as the abbreviation Pb.
Fact 8: Only in the 80s were the first known damaging effects of lead on the environment discovered.
Fact 9: Hunters can not do without lead, because buckshot is made out of lead for the most part.
Fact 10: Waterpipes and other pipes are often made of lead, because they can be easily bent into shape.

Lead price per kilo history

The lead price has only been set about 50 years ago. Nevertheless, this raw material can be traced back to 5000 before Christ. At those times we thought that lead was the oldest and strongest metal in the world. This myth was debunked pretty quickly though.

The first thing that was done with this discovery, was the creation of pipes. Especially in the Roman empire this raw material was used heavily. It was the most effective way to transport water from one to other places within the empire.

What can lead be used for?

Lead can be used for different applications and every type has a different price. We mainly know lead from batteries in phones, tablets and cars. But there are a multitude of other things you can use this raw material for.

By combining it with tin you can use it as a connecting factor in machines, building constructions and a whole lot more. Besides that, it is also used as a conductor in electrical circuits.

It is also sometimes used as a connecting factor in objects made of silver. Besides this you can recognize it through the famous stained-glass windows that you mostly find in churches and cathedrals.

Lead and the future

We expect that the lead price per kilo in the future will only rise. This is the expectation because we find more and more thing that we can use lead for.

The demand and supply model is changing all the time as well. There are reserves, but these have been shrinking since 2018. This is because not a lot of countries produce this raw material, while all countries use it.

Old lead can also be handed in at metal stores. They often give a pretty good price for this. So if you have any lead in your house that you don’t use, this is the moment to sell it.

Old lead price

The current price of old lead is around €1,25 per kg. This is very high, because new lead can be bought by companies for around €1,80 to €2. This is one of the reasons that people don’t just throw away lead objects. It is quite an investment like gold, but the amount per kg is lower.

What is important to note, is that even though the lead price might be lower than gold, the objects of lead are usually a lot heavier in general. This means that it is easier to create a high amount of lead inventory quickly and gain more money. Finding a lot of gold in weight is pretty tough for more people.

Lead has always been interesting and the more electrical devices we create, the higher the demand will be. We think the price will be stable now and in the future, perhaps it will even rise!

So, store your old lead safely so that you can sell it later in life. You can always make some money with it, so it is a shame to throw away.