Closing 14 Factories, Laying off 5000 Workers, Losing $240 Million!

Car battery producers are appealing to the Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Kamal Rezig, to retract the decision to license the export of lead ingots and lead powder, which is the primary material that constitutes 85% of car battery components, as a result of the severe scarcity in the market since last June, which may lead, according to them, to closing 14 factories, laying off 5000 workers, and wasting $240 million annually in importing these materials from abroad.

A letter addressed from the Syndicate of the Batteries Branch and Car Battery Producers, and the recycling of used batteries to the Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Kamal Rezig, regarding the ministerial instruction issued on June 23, 2021, allowing the export of lead through ingots and powder; “We regret the measures taken regarding allowing the export of ingots and lead powder, and the rest of the products classified as raw materials for the battery recycling activity, which depend on raw lead, which represents 85% of the raw material we use”, the producers say.

The industrialists in the text of the message added; “Our branch includes 14 factories for the production of car batteries, including 3 general production units, in addition to other projects that have not yet entered service, and the sector employs 5000 workers in direct positions, and tens of thousands of indirect positions, while these factories are covering the national need for car batteries by 70%, with a capacity of 3 million batteries per year”.

“If the decision to license the export of lead is not reversed, the raw material will be imported shortly from abroad, and it is related to alloys and lead powder, which will drain 20 million euros per month to provide a raw lead for 14 production units, which represents 3 times what the exports of these materials generate, in addition to that, such a decision may cause the closure of the recycling units”, the official spokesman for the Syndicate of Car Battery Manufacturers, Salim Houari, told Echorouk.

“Importing alloys and raw materials will make the prices of car batteries more expensive than those currently approved, compared to those imported from the European Union with zero fees, which may lead to the suspension of the activity of this branch of products destined for sale on the spot. However, the export of raw lead will supply global factories with this substance, which is scarce in the international market and leads to a severe deficit in the local market”, he added.

“We have great confidence in your support for the local industry and the protection of the national product following what was previously ordered by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and therefore we ask the Ministry of Commerce to stop exporting this material immediately, which import bill equalled $200 million in 2016, while it is less than $30 million currently, but if the last decision is not reversed, the import bill may reach huge amounts of hard currency”, he addressed the Commerce Minister.

“Simply by stopping the export of lead and providing it in the market for car battery producers the price of local batteries will reduce by 40% from those imported, preserve hard currency in the Algerian treasury, achieve a high integration rate in the manufacture of this product of up to 85%, and enable the maintenance of 5000 jobs”.