Lead price today — PB
Key statistics
Performance
Price change measured from the start of each period to the latest spot price.
| Period | Change | Change % | |
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| 5 days | |||
| 1 month | |||
| 6 months | |||
| 1 year | |||
| 5 years |
Price by unit of weight
About Lead
Lead (Pb, from Latin plumbum) is a soft, dense, bluish-grey metal that humans have been smelting for at least 8,000 years. Despite a long retreat from paints, plumbing and gasoline due to its toxicity, lead is still produced in record quantities — about 12 million tonnes a year — almost entirely for one application: lead-acid batteries.
A lead-acid starter battery is in nearly every car on the road today, including hybrids and EVs (for the 12 V auxiliary system). Lead is also the most extensively recycled industrial metal in the world: more than 85% of refined lead comes from recycling spent batteries in a closed loop.
See the live lead spot price per tonne and compare it with zinc, with which it is often mined as a co-product.
Main uses
- Lead-acid batteries (over 85% of demand)
- Radiation shielding for medical and nuclear use
- Roof flashings, soundproofing sheet and stained glass
- Counterweights and ballast (yachts, lifts, cranes)
- Ammunition and fishing weights
LME-deliverable refined lead is 99.97% minimum. Battery-grade lead is typically 99.99%. Solders historically used 60Sn/40Pb, but RoHS regulations have largely replaced lead-based solders with tin-silver-copper alloys.