[ferro-alloys.com]North American shipments of replacement automotive lead batteries fell 10.5% year on year in May, data from Battery Council International showed.

About 8.698 million batteries were shipped in North America in May, versus roughly 9.723 million units shipped in May of 2018, the BCI data showed Tuesday.

Conversely, the report showed May shipments increased 2.7% compared with volumes shipped in April, with April's shipments totaling about 8.473 million.

The data also reflected a 5.4% drop in cumulative shipment volumes, with approximately 43.003 million batteries shipped from January through May of this year, compared with about 45.479 million units shipped between January and May of 2018.

Shipment volumes registered only a minor change on a rolling 12-month basis, with about 113.879 million replacement batteries shipped between June 2018 and May 2019, versus roughly 114.464 million units shipped from June 2017 to May 2018, a 0.5% decline, according to BCI.

In original-equipment battery shipments, the changes were comparatively minor, with May's volume of about 1.785 million batteries representing a 1.5% rise month on month from roughly 1.759 million OE batteries shipped in April of this year.

Also, May's shipments were down just 0.09% year on year from the roughly 1.787 million batteries shipped in May of 2018.

Cumulatively, about 8.932 million OE batteries were shipped from January through May of this year, down 2% from approximately 9.111 million units shipped in the same period in 2018.

The BCI data also registered only a minor decrease on a rolling 12-month basis, with about 20.74 million OE batteries shipped between June 2018 and May 2019, compared with roughly 20.889 million OE units shipped from June 2017 through May 2018, a 0.68% drop.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]