China Nonferrous Metallurgy

China is a major lead consumer, but its degree of security for lead resources is not high. The scientific calculation of the in-use stock of secondary lead as a supply for future lead demand can provide significant data support for lead resource supply. In this paper, a dynamic analysis model of lead material flow is built, with two methods used to verify in-use lead stock: one is the top-down method to analyze the lead inflow, outflow and stock in China’s socio-economic system from 1949 to 2018 to calculate the in-use lead stock; the other is the bottom-up approach to analyze the changes of the most important types of carriers and battery capacity of lead-acid batteries, and calculate the in-use lead stock of lead-acid batteries in 2018, from which the in-use lead stock of the year can be calculated. Results show that the in-use lead stock of 2018 is calculated as 23200000t by the top-down method, and 18920000t by the bottom-up method. The difference rate between the two methods is 14%, which is reliable in general. The in-use lead stock mainly lies in lead-acid batteries, and the cumulative consumption accounts for approximately 71%. Relevant policies and regulations should be formulated in China to improve the recovery system of secondary lead, optimize the layout of secondary lead enterprises and battery producers, and gradually increase the utilization rate of secondary lead.