It was said from the smelter officials on Monday that insufficient power supply has forced lead smelters in Henan province to cut or shut production, the latest victim of China’s power shortages this winter.

Production in the world’s top lead producing nation was already falling due to reduced supplies of lead concentrates from northern mines in the winter.

Smelter officials said metal output would fall further in January, resulting from lower output in Henan, the biggest lead producing province in China.

Primary lead smelters typically are not as seen the main industrial firms such as aluminium smelters to which local governments in Henan try to maintain power supplies, as the cost of production stoppages and restarts is high.

Regions such as Henan in central and southwest China face reduced electricity supplies after demand jumped because of freezing weather in January that triggered coal shortfalls, according to the State Grid Corp of China .

The power operator in Henan province’s industrial city of Gongyi stopped providing daytime electricity to aluminium fabricators as of last Monday, forcing them to halve production.

SHUTDOWNA sales manager at a lead smelter in Lingbao city said the smelter had closed its 100,000-tonne-a-year smelting and refining capacity on Jan 12 temporarily due to power shortages.

Local residents were also demanding higher environmental requirements for lead smelters, prompting the smelter to bring forward an upgrading plan, said the sales manager, who asked not to be identified.

Another 100,000-tonne-a-year lead smelter in Lingbao was cutting production, said a senior executive, who also asked not to be named.

But smelter officials in Jiyuan city said smelters, including China’s top lead producer Yuguang Gold and Lead and Wanyang Lead, were running nearly normal operations because overall power consumption had fallen following the closure of smelting capacity in August last year.

The capacity was likely to remain shut in February.