Trafigura makes a record delivery of lead into LME warehouses

Bloomberg News | July 14, 2026 | 11:17 am Markets Suppliers & Equipment Europe Zinc and Lead

Credit: LME

Trafigura was responsible for a record delivery of lead into London Metal Exchange warehouses that sent prices tumbling and lifted stockpiles to the highest level in 14 years on Tuesday.

The trading house made huge deliveries in Singapore that lifted global stockpiles tracked by the bourse surged by 80,700 tons, according to people familiar with the matter. It was the biggest one-day increase seen in data going back to 1970, and it adds to a mountain of lead that has accumulated in the city state over recent years.

The Trafigura delivery was previously reported by Reuters. Lead prices fell to the lowest level in more than a year after data showing the inflows, which boosted total inventories to 370,075 tons, the highest since 2012.

Lead is predominantly mined alongside zinc, but far greater volumes are produced via the recycling of spent lead-acid batteries, which are used to power the starter motor in combustion-engine vehicles. Growing sales of electric vehicles threaten to create major imbalances in the lead market, with demand for new batteries stalling while supplies of scrapped cells continue to swell.

Lead is the only industrial metal on the exchange to drop this year, racking up losses of nearly 8%, while tin has led other metals higher with a 33% gain.

Singapore has become a magnet for the industry’s surplus metal, with stocks there now accounting for more than 90% of the total in the LME’s global storage network. The surge in inventories has opened up lucrative opportunities for traders, with Trafigura last year buying up a local warehousing firm to strengthen its presence in Singapore. The deliveries were made via multiple warehousing companies, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss commercially sensitive information.

Lead edged lower to $1,867 a ton as of 5:40 p.m. in London. Other metals were mixed, with copper, zinc and tin climbing while aluminum and nickel traded little changed.

(By Archie Hunter and Mark Burton)