Private firm Indian Lead Ltd plans to resume production by April at its two plants, closed about three years ago because of a shortage of a key raw material.
The poor availability of used lead acid batteries forced the firm, India's second-largest lead producer, to stop production at its plant in Calcutta in 2000 and the Thane unit in the western state of Maharashtra in 2001.
The Thane plant has since been moved to Wada.
"We will be ready for production at our Wada and Calcutta plants by April 2004," P N Mago, a former general manager of the company who now acts as an adviser to it, told Reuters.
The company has shifted its Thane unit to Wada in Maharashtra and refabricated the furnaces, he said, adding the work was on for the revival of the Calcutta plant.
The initial capacity of the Wada plant would be 24,000 metric tons a year, which could be raised to about 40,000 metric tons by 2006/07. The Calcutta plant would produce 7,500 metric tons a year, Mago said.
"The technology for the plants has been firmed up and a consultant in Europe has supplied the know-how for environment protection," Mago said.
The company is likely to get sufficient raw material because the government last year lifted a ban on scrap imports by registered firms and asked battery makers to sell new lead batteries only to customers who exchange them for old ones. Car makers are exempt.
Battery makers can sell the used batteries only to lead recycling units registered that the government has approved as environmentally safe.
"We already have environment clearance from the government and have been classified as an environmentally sound management plant," Mago said.
More than a quarter of India's lead output comes from more than 700 small lead-recycling units that are not listed with the government.
Traders say these units held much of the old battery market by offering higher prices for old batteries -- which they could afford by evading taxes.
Mago said the company would also import scrap lead from the Middle East and lead concentrates from Iran, Morocco and Australia, besides recycling the domestic material.
India annually produces 80,000 to 100,000 metric tons of lead, including about 40,000 metric tons by Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Six private sector plants and small recycling units account for the remaining production.
The country annually imports about 100,000 metric tons of lead, mainly from Australia, China and South Korea, traders said.
Mago said Indian demand for lead was expected to grow by about 10 percent annually, with several new battery manufacturing units being set up to meet the needs of the automobile sector and rapid growth in the market for electrical inverters, which supply electricity during power failures. Reuters