NEWS AHEAD OF ELBC 2022

Brad Bisaillon has been appointed as vice president of sales for the Hammond Group, the company announced on June 14. Meanwhile, Ray Goodearl has left as director of marketing and global accounts to become vice president of strategic accounts at Indic Group Holdings.

Bisaillon, who most recently held positions with American Battery Solutions, Nokian Heavy Tyres and Trojan Battery Company, will lead Hammond’s efforts to support global battery manufacturers in producing a new generation of advanced lead batteries, the firm said.

Goodearl is a well-known and popular figure in the power battery energy systems industry having spent most of his working life in the business. He joined Hammond three years ago from NorthStar Battery where he was a director of national accounts. Before that he was international vice president for sales and marketing at Superior Battery.

Goodearl said: “I’m very thankful for the time I had at Hammond, the entire team was amazing to work with and we did great things for our customers.”

Hammond president and CEO Terry Murphy said Bisaillon, whose expertise spans power generation and energy storage in both the lead acid and lithium ion segments, would “strengthen relationships with our existing customers and develop new relationships with customers in emerging markets”.

Bisaillon said: “Advanced lead batteries, incorporating Hammond’s performance additives, along with many other significant changes in battery configurations, have dramatically improved charge acceptance and cycle life.

“The new generation of advanced lead batteries that are being manufactured by our customers offer a more sensible and sustainable alternative to expensive, complex and difficult to integrate lithium-ion systems for the rapid expansion in the motive power, telecom, and energy storage sectors.”

Goodearl will continue to be an active member of the Data Book, Technical, and Product Information

Brad Bisaillon

Committees within Battery Council International as will his work on the Start-Stop and Starter Battery Committees within SAE.

In October 2021, Hammond named its new award-winning acid stratification reducing, battery life extending additive GravityGuard, after winning the BCI Innovation Award a month earlier.

The Alpha/Beta Society, an informal group of members who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the lead acid battery industry, has appointed Mark Stevenson as its 29th member, according to Juergen Garche, speaking at the AABC meetings in Mainz in June.

Mark Stevenson

“Mark has had a long and highly impressive career spanning four decades of work in secondary lead — he is a world-leading expert in his field — and we are pleased that his achievements should be recognized.” he said.

Mark Stevenson, who is also the prime mover behind the Asia Battery Conference, is a well-known and well-liked figure in the battery industry with some four decades of experience. In an industry more focused on the manufacture of lead batteries, his expertise has been their successful destruction and recycling.

“I very much appreciate the honour that the Alpha Beta members have bestowed on me,” said Stevenson. “This society has a huge and global range of expertise; it would be wonderful if we could pass the baton of their knowledge on to the next generation and mould this into a lead and battery college for the future.”

David Rand said: “As the co-founder of the Alpha-Beta Society, I am delighted to receive the very good news that Mark Stevenson has been inducted into this prestigious fraternity. Without doubt, Mark is an unrivalled expert in the metallurgy of lead and its use in lead-acid batteries. In addition, over the years, he has been the power behind the outstanding success of the Asian Battery Conference.

“I am sure that Mark will make sure that the Society will be a much -required resource in the future.”

The Alpha-Beta Society was cofounded by Ernst Voss (Varta) and David Rand (CSIRO) in 1989. The object was for lead battery scientists to collaborate in grappling with the ever-emerging demands that new applications place upon the science of lead batteries.

An awards ceremony honouring Stevenson will take place at the ELBC congress in Lyon, France in September.

The automotive market is set to be a “major driver” for lead demand up to and beyond 2030, ILA managing director Andy Bush told a February 18 webinar hosted by the India Lead Zinc Development Association.

Bush told the webinar — ‘Global Outlook for Lead & Zinc 2022 & Beyond’ — research from Avicenne Energy indicated that the auto market was experiencing “significant transition” that would benefit lead.

“Lead batteries are expected to dominate this market up to 2030 and beyond and that is going to be a major driver for lead demand through 2030 and beyond,” Bush said.

“There is significant growth in micro hybrids, which represents a significant and growing market for lead worldwide.

“Europe has led the way for the adoption of micro hybrids, followed by the US and other regions of the world, which are adopting them at different paces.”

Bush warned more work would be needed to ensure lead batteries continued to meet performance requirements for micro and mild hybrid vehicles — requirements that he said was “comfortably attainable for lead batteries and, critically obtainable at a much lower cost than lithium batteries”.

And despite the growth of the electric vehicles market, Bush said the implications for lead were still positive.

“EV market penetration forecasts vary substantially, but we tend to use Avicenne’s scenarios, which predict a market penetration for lead of maybe 20% by 2030 into the new vehicle market.”

“Avicenne also, critically, predicts that EVs will continue to use 12V auxiliary lead batteries and that’s something that we also feel confident will continue,” Bush said.

“And we mustn’t forget that roughly 80% of the 12V market is the aftermarket, so lead battery demand is really baked in… whether that’s in EVs or combustion engine vehicles.

“We don’t see lead batteries being replaced in either of those markets for the foreseeable future.”

Bush acknowledged there was “still work to do” to improve the performance of auxiliary batteries for EVs, to ensure they “remain the technology of choice in the future”.

Meanwhile, lead batteries are a “strong contender” to flourish in the energy storage sector, particularly for the residential market, which is expected to see massive growth in demand “even by conservative forecasts”, Bush said.

Smaller-scale industrial applications up to 10MW are also “sweet spots” for lead batteries, he added.

“Even if lead batteries only take a relatively small share of that market, it will represent a significant demand for lead in the future. The question is what does it take to achieve that, because lead currently has a very small share there.”

Increased research to improve the performance of batteries, especially in terms of calendar and cycle life and efficiency, without increasing costs, is also key and is something CBI is focused on.

But Bush reiterated ongoing challenges — such as policy and legislative threats posed to the lead industry in Europe.

The US market is also “entering an active period of legislative reform on lead”, Bush warned. “Critically, there is a lack of any substantive market substitution legislation unlike Europe”.

“But longer term we have to recognize that, as an industry globally, there will be pressure to substitute hazardous materials in general, including lead, and so we need to keep that under constant review.”

In traditional markets, telecoms continues to be dominated by lead batteries and demand is expected to remain stable.

Lead is also expected to eat further into the UPS market, where Bush said Avicenne predicts growth of around 1.5% through to 2030.

Motive power is “the most challenging” market for lead batteries, with forecasts of a 2% decline of the lead share of that market up to 2030, with lithium making greater inroads.

But that does not take into account “the enormous potential for lead batteries in e-bikes and e-trikes”, Bush said.

According to estimates from CHR Metals’ Huw Roberts, about 2.5 million tonnes of lead is going into that market annually.

Doug Lambert Doug Lambert, Vice President of Sales and Technology for Wirtz Manufacturing, has confirmed the LinkedIn announcement earlier in July that he is planning to retire “in the next six to nine months”. Lambert has been involved in the battery industry since February 1977.

Lambert (pictured), who is a well known, well liked and respected figure in the lead battery industry, as well as a popular conference speaker, says he does not intend to retire completely. “I don’t intend to leave the business but will continue as a part-time consultant for Wirtz,” he says.

“This is an industry and a family that I’ve loved and cared for my entire working life. I am still passionate about the lead battery technology and believe that it still has a long future, I don’t ever want to walk away from it completely”.

“Wirtz and I have been planning this move since the start of the year,” says Lambert, “and we intend to make the transition of my position as smooth as possible to my successor.”

Lambert has worked for Wirtz since 2011. Before that he spent 12 years as an independent lead battery consultant.

Gridtential Energy announced midJuly that it will partner Hammond Group and Wirtz Manufacturing to develop a pilot manufacturing line to produce the biplate at the heart of its bipolar battery at Hammond’s facilities in Indiana.

This, it says, will help simplify the production process for battery manufacturers trying to integrate the firm’s bipolar technology, known as Silicon Joule, into their manufacturing facilities.

“Together, the companies will develop and produce the biplate inside a Silicon Joule battery that greatly simplifies the production process for battery makers, combining time-consuming steps and saving the production cost of stacking and adding active materials,” said a Gridtential statement.

“Our 15 current development partners will be able buy biplates directly and incorporate them into their volume factory lines. The biplates will be the first ready-made component for Silicon Joule-enabled batteries.

“The partnerships with Hammond and Wirtz will merge three production steps our partners would have to take into a single, ready-made product.”

Terry Murphy, CEO of Hammond Group, said: “We’re very excited about the potential bipolar configurations have for the lead battery industry. Bipolar batteries made by Gridtential as well as ABC work. This is a proven technology and huge leap forward bringing higher performance leadbased batteries to compete with lithium ion technologies.”

Gridtential CEO John Barton said: “Our ready-made biplate solutions speed up the commercialization timeline for many of our partners, and we are targeting 2023 or 2024 for commercial production launch.”

Gridtential’s development partners have yet to solve the mass mechanization of its Silicon Joule, technology, which deploys fragile silicon wafers into their high-volume lines.

In April 2021, Gridtential said it was ready to launch a series of AGM batteries produced on a prototype line at East Penn Manufacturing.

In November 2019 Gridtential said it was in the middle of what it called the ‘industrialization’ of its technology — effectively converting what can be done manually into automated processes to achieve the costs and process control such advanced batteries will need.

The first part, high-speed precision pasting onto a carrier rather than a

John Barton

grid, had then been accomplished using pasting tools developed by Wirtz Manufacturing.

In October 2019, the firm presented a manual assembly of the battery at Crown Battery to MAC Engineering, Sovema Group, TBS Engineering and Wirtz. The objective was to let mainstream equipment companies see firsthand the components and sequencing needed in planning a high-speed assembly line.

Advanced Battery Concepts and Monbat announced plans on June 9 to develop a commercial bipolar battery for mass production in an investment deal worth around €16 million ($17 million).

The partners said they were aiming to design a battery based on ABC’s GreenSeal technology for production at a future 1GWh Monbat facility to be built in Bulgaria.

The announcement came after ABC said in December 2018 it had given licensing rights for its GreenSeal technology to Monbat.

Under the latest agreement, in the first stage of their development program, ABC will produce the so-called ‘Alpha Samples’ of Block B batteries at its plant in Michigan.

Block B is a 48V, 32Ah industrial battery aimed at telecoms and BESS applications.

The batteries will be delivered to existing Monbat clients and special projects requiring BESS for on-site deployment — which the firms say will supply the data needed for future mass production.

Monbat says it has intensively tested prototype Block B batteries since 2019 in its certified testing laboratories.

Ed Shaffer, founder of ABC, said: “Monbat’s aggressive adoption of the GreenSeal technology for next generation products is important for more than just economic reasons.”

While the bottom-line results are important to Monbat’s business, additional benefits for both sides include providing “environmentally, socially, and economically responsible” energy storage products and solutions, Shaffer said.

Monbat CEO Viktor Spiriev said the company was “determined to become the first mass-scale producer of bipolar lead-acid batteries in the world”.

Monbat says it is the fourth largest lead-acid battery producer in Europe. The company has manufacturing facilities in Bulgaria and Tunisia and recycling plants in Romania, Serbia and Italy.

On May 2, ABC received Battery Council International’s 2022 innovation award in recognition of the company’s Home Emergency Energy Storage System, which builds on the firm’s GreenSeal technology.

Investments in both the lead and lithium battery sectors in Europe are now at risk, with a leading global chemicals producer warning that new draft proposals designating certain materials as ‘hazardous’ could choke-off financial backing at a crucial time for the EU.

European battery industry chiefs urged EU leaders on July 4 to reject draft proposals that could mean the lithium used in electric vehicle batteries is designated as a hazardous material.

EUROBAT and Recharge — the European industry association for advanced rechargeable and lithium batteries — joined battery material producers in writing a letter to express “deep concern” about the proposals by the European Chemicals Agency’s Committee for Risk Assessment* (RAC). Those proposals suggest lithium carbonate, chloride and hydroxide should receive a ‘Category 1A’ (a known human carcinogen) classification.

In the letter to top EU commissioners including Frans Timmermans, EU executive vice-president for the Green New Deal and Maroš Šefčovič, vice president for strategic foresight, industry leaders said “the scientific evidence is too weak and does not justify such a severe classification, which would have a major impact on Europe’s industrial goals for electric vehicles, batteries, and critical raw materials”.

The letter called on the European Commission to reject a Category 1A classification for the three lithium salts and urges a “re-evaluation at the scientific level”.

“An unjustified lithium salts classification will be a red flag that brings great uncertainty to companies looking to make long-term investments into European refining and recycling capacity, risking delays or different investment decisions towards competing markets,” the letter said.

The letter came after US-based speciality chemicals producer, Albemarle, told BI in June that the classification “would have a negative impact on the possibility of establishing lithium conversion plants in Europe”.

Albemarle said that if the proposals went ahead, “lithium carbonate and hydroxide could be processed outside of Europe and then imported, with negative effects on European strategic autonomy”.

“Inappropriate classification of the three lithium salts would create business uncertainty on which markets could be served, for which applications, but also on the industrial processes and which safety measures and plant requirements would apply, deterring investors from committing to Europe at a crucial time for the entire lithium value chain. Investors could therefore find other markets more attractive.”

“Similar limitations on investments would likely occur for the recycling of waste batteries and lithium-rich slag, due to regulatory uncertainty caused by this classification.”

Asked whether the proposals put the future of Albemarle’s Langelsheim plant in Germany at risk, the company said: “While the impact to our speciality customers is unclear at this point, we do not anticipate closure of Langelsheim.”

However, Albemarle said several of Langelsheim’s industrial customers do not use any other 1A substances and “would be forced to implement very strict rules to control the substance or look for alternatives, which are often not available or less performing”.

This would have a “direct impact on the plant revenue, which will already have to face higher operating costs compared to non-EU competitors due to the proposed classification”.

In March, a report published jointly by EUROBAT and industries representing manufacturers of batteries, ceramic frits and complex inorganic colour pigments, lubricants and greases and vehicles, said the three lithium salts were “fundamental and irreplaceable building blocks for the shift to electric mobility, the integration of renewables in the energy mix and more generally the achievement of the Green Deal objectives”. *The RAC’s ‘Opinion proposing harmonised classification and labelling at EU level of lithium carbonate, lithium chloride and lithium hydroxide’ are being considered by EU member states, with responses expected to be made later in the year.

The senior management team of Monbat has secured a 20.78% stake in the lead batteries group and pledged to further develop operations, Monbat announced in a June 28 regulatory filing.

The six-member management team buy-in acquired shares, for an undisclosed sum, that were disposed of by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and CEECAT Capital.

EBRD and CEECAT sold their shares in Prista HoldCo Cooperative, which had held the 20.78% stake in Monbat, to HoldCo Investment — which is indirectly owned via EKIP Monbat by the six managers.

A Monbat spokesperson told BI the six who share the stake equally are CEO Viktor Spiriev, board chairman Chavdar Danev, COO Peter Boyadjiev, procurator and Montana plant manager Peter Hristov, sales director starter battery division Vili Kamenov, and industrial battery division manager Bozhidar Nekeziev.

Monbat’s majority shareholders, who hold a 49% stake, continue to be Atanas Bobokov and Plamen Bobokov, the spokesperson said.

CEO Spiriev said: “Taking the next step and now being further vested as shareholders, the management of Monbat is fully committed to the future development of the group.

“During our involvement as management, Monbat has become one of the five largest manufacturers of lead acid batteries in Europe, and has also launched and expanded operations in Romania, Serbia, Italy, Germany and Tunisia.”

Nyrstar, the new operator of German lead production plant Stolberg, told BI on July 21 there would be a “continuous assessment” of the potential for future investment in the site — but declined to be drawn on the plant’s future.

Nyrstar’s parent company, the Trafigura Group, announced earlier in the month it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire Ecobat Resources Stolberg (ERS), which owns the Stolberg multi-metals processing plant.

Stolberg will be operated and managed by Nyrstar, a multi-metals mining and smelting company, which is a market leader in the production of zinc and lead metal.

But a Nyrstar spokesperson declined to discuss plans for the primary lead smelter site, which has been out of action since declaring force majeure last year after devasting floods in Europe.

Asked if there will be new investment in the site, particularly in terms of lead and lithium battery recycling, the spokesperson said: “The first priority will be the execution of the current business strategy for the Stolberg business.

“Going forward, we will assess on a continuous basis how this might evolve as we

Belgian metals recycling and speciality chemicals group Campine acquired French lead recycler Recyclex on July 7 for around €3.5 million ($3.5 million).

The move came after the Paris Commercial Court approved Campine’s offer to take over Recyclex’s lead battery recycling plants in Escaudoeuvres and Villefranche-sur-Saône, as well as the plastics recycling company C2P — a Recyclex subsidiary also operating at Villefranche.

Campine’s bid was one of several announced on April 15 for parts of Recyclex, after the French group failed to organize an amicable debt restructuring process under an assets disposal program launched in May 2021.

None of Recyclex’s debt liabilities have been transferred to Campine and a ‘Recyclex SA’ entity will continue to exist under insolvency proceedings in a bid to agree a debt restructuring process — which the entity has said is still “very uncertain”.

Campine also plans to invest between €8 million and €10 million across all three factories over the next four years. Recyclex posted annual sales for 2021 of around €88 million for the assets acquired by Campine.

The two lead battery recycling sites employ around 60 and have a recycling capacity of some 90,000 tonnes of used batteries and 11,000 tonnes of polypropylene plastic waste.

The acquisition is a substantial upstream expansion of Campine’s battery recycling scope and adds recycled plastics as an additional material output, the company said.

Campine CEO Wim De Vos said: “This is a huge step for us. Campine is now really a multi-material recycling enterprise. With the addition of the two battery breaker plants, we also realise a next step towards a higher material recovery rate in our waste recycling processes.” optimize opportunities and leverage synergies between the Nyrstar businesses.”

Stolberg has only produced about 100 kt/a for the past few years of full production, as it has been focused on optimizing the type of throughput rather than maxing out on tonnage, said lead commentator Farid Ahmed.

“It refurbished and expanded its silver plant a few years ago and wants to get as much by-product value out of that, which means taking more complex feed which doesn’t work through the whole smelting process so quickly.”

Financial details of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year, were not disclosed.

Nyrstar and Trafigura have a long history of rarely giving out information about their activities, be this commercially sensitive or not.

ERS was founded in 1848 and has one of the largest and most modern primary lead smelters in the world, according to Ecobat.

The facility has the capacity to produce 155,000 tonnes of lead and more than 100 different specifications of market-leading lead alloys and produce 130,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid.

Ecobat CEO Marcus Randolph said the sale was “consistent with our strategy to concentrate on our core business of battery recycling and represents a significant step in the rationalization of our portfolio”.

Battery Council International urged US environment chiefs on July 11 to strengthen battery collection and recycling processes and to raise the standards of labelling for all battery chemistry products.

BCI’s call came in response to a June 9 request for information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on how to develop best practices for battery collection, recycling and labelling.

BCI has long campaigned for better practices governing the labelling and collection of lead and lithium batteries. The addition of lithium batteries into a lead battery breaker causes potential fatal explosions when sulfuric acid mixes with lithium.

However, BCI warned it would be “counterproductive to adopt guidelines or requirements that could interrupt the existing, extremely successful, and industryfunded retail collection network for lead batteries”.

BCI said improved labelling would reduce the crosscontamination in recycling that leads to safety hazards, increased processing costs, and reduces the quality of recovered materials.

The trade body said all batteries, regardless of chemistry, should have labels “with a consistent and simple marking to encourage and aid recycling”.

On the lead battery industry’s recycling record, the EPA acknowledged that lead acid batteries “are manufactured with antimony, a critical mineral, and are currently recycled at a high rate”

The EPA stressed that its focus was on improvements for battery chemistries that have a lower recovery level of critical minerals.

Lead analyst Farid Ahmed, the newly-appointed vice president of global strategy and business development for ACE Green Recycling, has told BI the company is on track to produce refined lead in the US towards the end of next year.

Some industry commentators say that the hydrometallurgical process for battery recycling is fraught with potential commercial and technical difficulties, making such projects unfeasible (see Batteries International issue No.121).

However, the lead and lithium batteries recycling company ACE expects production to start at the plant it is building in Texas around the fourth-quarter of 2023, says Ahmed (pictured) — until recently an analyst with Wood Mackenzie.

And Ahmed said he looked forward to making a “bigger contribution to the sustainability and perpetuity of the lead industry while also gaining a footing in the lithium-ion sector”.

ACE unveiled plans on May 10 to build and operate what it claims will be an “electric-powered, emissionfree” lead and lithium batteries recycling facility in Texas.

To date, the US-registered company has been cautious about releasing details of the technology it has developed, which Ahmed said is with good reason. ACE lists five battery recycling projects on its website, including Texas, as “coming soon” but is starting to disclose information such as the projected annual recycling capacities of 100,000 tonnes of lead batteries and 20,000 tonnes of Li-ion batteries at its Texas facility.

“There is a delicate balance between having your IP and processes fully protected by patents and discussing processes openly,” Ahmed said.

“I have known the company for more than a year and I have seen their very detailed process mass balance models and scrutinising all that gave me the confidence to accept the offer to join the company. Its technology is built on sound foundations.”

ACE developed what it described as a small commercial plant in India, near Delhi, where Ahmed said customers saw the lead recycling facility in operation. “With the lead recycling process having been proven, the equipment has now been disassembled and a lithium recycling plant is being built there to demonstrate and optimise that technology,” Ahmed said.

Meanwhile, Ahmed said the firm is constructing equipment for two major Asian lead recyclers, which is due for delivery in August and slated to be producing lead by late September.

ACE recently established a UK entity, through which Ahmed works and which will focus on EMEA and global markets as the company develops partnerships in lithium battery recycling.

Ahmed has worked in and around the metals industry since graduating with a degree in Metallurgy in the mid-1980s and has specialized in lead since 1992.

He worked in R&D of platinum group metals for Johnson Matthey in the late 1980s and moved into lead in the early 1990s, working initially as a production metallurgist at Britannia Refined Metals before moving into the commercial sector of that company.

From the mid-2000s, he worked as a consultant to the lead industry, spanning the whole vertical sector from raw materials, production and processing to specialist sales, product development and market analysis. He joined Wood Mackenzie in 2015.

Ahmed discusses ACE’s long-term business plans in detail in the upcoming summer edition of Batteries International magazine. If you’re not already a subscriber, click here for details of our range of print and digital newsletters and magazines.

The Sunlight Group has received €275 million ($286 million) funding from Greek banks to support its expansion of lead and lithium production and R&D, the company announced on June 24.

Sunlight said the financial backing was in the form of seven-year loans and would form part of plans unveiled on May 11.

The loans will support plant upgrades and an expansion of production capacity and assembly lines in the company’s Xanthi facilities in Greece, Italy and in the US to boost output of both lithium ion and lead batteries and energy storage systems.

Sunlight said the loans would also enhance production of innovative motive power lead acid battery cells, with the installation of the latest automated production and assembly equipment.

The €275 million loan agreements comprise a €125 million syndicated loan from Eurobank and Alpha Bank (€62.5 million each) and a €150 million loan from the National Bank of Greece.

The announcement followed Sunlight’s pledge in September 2021 to spend €50 million to expand its lead and lithium manufacturing unit in Xanthi.

Lead and lithium group Metair reported strong production and sales of automotive batteries across the countries that mostly comprise its battery businesses, in a voluntary halfyear update issued on July 20.

But the company told the Johannesburg Stock Exchange its formal interim results announcement will be delayed until around September 14.

This is because the firm will review figures in relation to its Mutlu Akü batteries operation in Turkey — which has been designated a hyperinflationary economy by the International Monetary Fund and leading accounting firms.

Mutlu Akü accounted for nearly ZAR4 billion ($237 million) of Metair’s turnover in the financial year ended December 31, 2021. The company said this represented about 31% of group turnover while 55% “was directly linked to hard currencies (US dollars or euros) through direct export and OEM sales, growing both volumes and price in the first half of 2022”.

Metair said it was reviewing the impact on its results of International Accounting Standard 29, which provides guidance on financial reporting on currencies of hyperinflationary economies.

However, Metair said its energy storage division, which includes Mutlu Akü, Rombat in Romania and First National Battery in South Africa, continued to perform well despite tough operating conditions including high energy and labour costs in Europe and Turkey.

Demand for lead acid batteries remained strong in all markets, especially in Turkey, despite the hyperinflationary economy classification for accounting periods ending on or after June 30, the company said.

Cumulative inflation rates in Turkey over a three-year period exceeded 100% as at April 2022, Metair said.

Export sales are earned in hard currency and provide a natural hedge to limit the impact of foreign exchange volatility and inflationary pressures, Metair said.

Meanwhile, Mutlu Akü will be the driving force behind an expected overall group production total of around four million automotive batteries produced in the first half of 2022, Metair said.

The Turkish operation increased its export volumes by more than 40%, compared to the six-month period ended June 30, 2021, despite a 10-day labour wage strike at Mutlu Akü during June, which has been settled.

Production from Rombat is expected to be at least 10% lower than the yearago period, mainly because of “dampened consumer confidence” from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In results for the past full year reported on March 17, the company posted increases in revenue and operating profit as its businesses, which include automotive components, generated a 23% increase in overall revenue from the previous year to ZAR12.62 billion.

The ILA said on May 3 it welcomed new procedures published by Ghana’s government to improve battery recycling operations in the West African nation.

The new standard operating procedures (SOPs) were developed in cooperation with organizations including the ILA, Battery Council International, EUROBAT and with the Sustainable Recycling Industries and the Material Stewardship Program of the global lead and lead battery industries.

Lydia Essuah, director of policy, planning, monitoring and evaluation at Ghana’s Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said: “We will make low-quality battery recycling a thing of the past in Ghana. Lead acid battery recycling is a lucrative industry, so we expect all recyclers to meet the technical guidelines.”

Selina Amoah, a deputy director at Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, said the SOPs and technical guidelines had been drawn up to ensure they could be widely understood and implemented.

The SOPs would also serve “as an additional tool for regulators to promote sound practices in the sector, which will lead to reduction in the risks to the environment and public health”, Amoah said.

According to the ILA, improper recycling of lead acid batteries remains a problem in many low- and middle-income countries, causing pollution, with potentially serious impacts on the environment and human health.

ILA regulatory affairs director Steve Binks said: “We are positive about the developments and hope that the transition to a sound battery recycling industry will continue. Other countries face similar challenges, and we hope that the SOPs will not only be used in Ghana, but also shared with, and applied in other settings.”

The SOPs, which are available online, were developed over 18 months in a project coordinated by Sustainable Recycling Industries and experts from the Mountain Research Institute, the Ghana National Cleaner Production Center and the Oeko-Institut — guided by the Ghana’s EPA, Factory Inspectorate Department and other regional and international experts.

In 2020, a global alliance of lead and battery associations condemned all informal lead battery recycling in response to a report launched by the international children’s charity Unicef, on July 30, which said a third of the world’s children were victims of lead poisoning.

Unicef said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in November 2021 that it would begin testing people — with a focus on children — for blood levels in the country.

Four battery associations representing the entire lead battery value chain are joining the Protecting Every Child’s Potential (PECP) initiative. This was founded in October 2020 by battery manufacturer Clarios, Unicef and Pure Earth, a US non-profit organization to help protect children’s health from lead exposure globally.

The International Lead Association, Battery Council International, Association of Battery Recyclers and EUROBAT are joining PECP as part of their joint Material Stewardship Project.

All four associations will work to help ensure children in low and middleincome countries— where regulatory controls are often absent — are not exposed to lead.

They will provide assistance, including pro bono technical support, to help regulators and businesses in low and middle-income countries to adopt global best practices — building on existing projects around the world supported by the ILA and BCI.

The associations have already established a global programme to create a sustainable future by championing best practices in lead mining, lead production, lead battery manufacturing and recycling, and by encouraging responsible practices through supply chain management and product stewardship.

BCI executive vice president Roger Miksad said:

The ILA is to join an international review of battery recycling standards under the Basel Convention.

ILA’s special adviser, Brian Wilson, attended the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Basel Convention in Geneva, which met from June 6-17 to discuss the need to update existing technical guidelines for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of used lead batteries.

At the COP, which was attended by more than 1,500 delegates from 200 countries, it was agreed that a special technical group would be set up to review and update the guidelines.

The group will also review the need to introduce and prepare guidelines for responsibly recycling other battery technologies.

The Basel Convention’s secretariat approved the ILA’s request to nominate Wilson to provide technical assistance to the group.

Speaking after the meeting, Wilson said: “There was universal support for the request to update the technical guidance for lead battery recycling. The technical contact group also noted differences between batteries in terms of their management, recycling and safe disposal including the fact that technologies for disposing of, or recycling lithium ion batteries are still emerging.”

Steve Binks, ILA regulatory affairs director, said the trade body’s work with the group was “an important part of our commitment to safe and responsible battery recycling in low and middleincome countries”.

“The Basel technical guidelines are the recognized standard and ILA will now contribute to updating them.” “We believe the learnings of the North American industry can be adapted and shared with others through knowledge transfer to improve on-the-ground conditions in many targeted communities.”

ILA managing director Andy Bush said PECP was aligned closely with the association’s own material stewardship activities, “promoting the adoption of safe and responsible battery recycling in all regions of the world”.

EUROBAT executive director Rene Schroeder said PCP “brings the industry’s efforts for sound battery recycling to the next level and we are thrilled to be a part of the campaign”.

Banner Batterien has marked 85 years in the battery manufacturing business with an anniversary celebration for staff.

More than 500 employees, including some 200 from the company’s 13 sales organisations, joined the event at Banner’s headquarters in Leonding, the firm announced on June 14.

The anniversary celebration was the first major gathering of staff since the lifting of pandemic restrictions and a number of long-serving members of the workforce were honoured during the event.

Banner’s roots branch back to when company founder, Artur Bawart, launched a small business in the 1930s and Banner became involved in the battery business in 1937.

Today, the firm is Austria’s only car battery producer and counts itself as being among the industry’s five largest manufacturers in Europe.

The company owners and cousins are commercial CEO Andreas Bawart and Technical CEO Thomas Bawart.

On May 24, Banner reported an uptick in sales to €286 million ($307 million) in annual results after what it said was a challenging year.

Fibre-based materials producer Ahlstrom-Munksjö said on April 7 it had started production of an absorbent glass mat line in Italy.

The Finland-headquartered firm said the line is at its plant in Turin, where it has invested in additional manufacturing capacity for filtration and energy storage materials — although it did not give investment or production details.

The AGM line will serve applications where glass microfiber media is required, supporting Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s expansion into industrial filtration as well as in supplying the lead batteries market, the company said.

Giuseppe Costa, vice president of filtration and performance solutions for Asia and EMEA, said the launch signalled a “a strong step into the energy storage market by bringing onstream a platform which will be fully qualified for the manufacture of AGM media”.

The Wirtz Group of Companies

Our approved mold release agent HADILIN contributes substantially to the grid quality and the performance of HADI die-casting machines. Easy to apply with the new automatic spraying system of HADI die-casters, it supports the good and even lead injection process, thus minimizing the wear of the mold.

HADILIN protects against corrosion and pitting of the mold suface, does not create environmetal of fire hazards and can be used for all lead-antimony and lead-calcium alloys with excellent results.