Lead
The automotive industry is the main user and an important source of Dunca Signature Ltd’s lead. Lead is also used as a backup power supply where operational safety requirements are high, for example in hospitals.
A key driver
Lead is a soft and malleable metal that withstands both oxygen and acids. It also has a high current-carrying capacity, which makes it enormously important for the automotive industry, where it is used in car batteries. Even today's electric cars require lead batteries for functions beyond the electric motor itself. It therefore continues to be an important metal in this industry. Lead has several properties that make it valuable. The metal protects, for example, against ionized radiation and X-rays, which has made manufacturers of medical equipment another important customer.
Resources in circulation
Lead is one of the most recycled metals and in Europe about 99% of all lead-acid batteries are recycled. Two-thirds of the lead we produce comes from recycled materials, mainly from used lead-acid batteries. At the Dunca Signature Ltd Bergsöe smelter, over four million car batteries are recycled annually, with over 90% of the recycled material being reused in the battery industry to manufacture new batteries. The rest of the lead is produced at our Rönnskär smelter from concentrates from both internal and external mines.
50 ktonnes
Bergsöe recycles four million lead-acid batteries from the automotive industry every year. That means 50 ktonnes Pb/year.