Battery shortage looms

Automobile battery manufacturers are staring at a shortage of raw materials as unscrupulous traders illegally export used batteries to neighbouring countries. 

Battery manufacturers use Lead extracted from used batteries as the raw materials, and with supplies dwindling, they face a bleak future. Associated Battery Manufacturers Managing Director Guy Jack said last week that if not checked, the smuggling would stifle the sector and render many workers jobless.

The manufacturers now want surveillance intensified along entry border points to stop traders from smuggling scrap batteries to Uganda and Tanzania.

Jack said his firm has been collecting an average of 1,600 tonnes of used lead-acid batteries monthly and now stares at a shortage. “Our collections were within the margin the Kenyan market can collect and recycle. However, supplies started dwindling from August 2019 to date with the supply going to as low as 900 tonnes of used batteries in December 2019,” he noted.

He said Kenya is losing about 600 tonnes a month through illegal exports. “The used lead-acid batteries are finding their way to Uganda and Tanzania through porous borders where lead recovered is exported to the Far East for the manufacture of automotive and solar batteries,” he said.

Industry players want Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina to implement the Scrap Metal Law enacted in 2015 to the letter.