Quick Conversions
Benchmark Lead Rate Behind Scrap Pricing — 10-Day Trend
All prices in ₹ per gram · daily rate, updated once per day
What "Lead Scrap Price Per Kg" Actually Refers To
Search that phrase and you're really asking two different questions at once. One is the benchmark rate — today it works out to ₹167.41 per kilogram, built from a per-gram figure of ₹0.17 as of September 18, 2026. The other is what a scrap dealer or recycler will actually pay you for a used battery or a bag of lead offcuts, which is a different, lower number. This page exists because the two get confused constantly, and mixing them up leads to disappointed sellers who expected the benchmark rate at the counter.
No published source tracks a single national "scrap rate" the way this site tracks the refined benchmark, and any number claiming to be that figure should be treated with caution. What can be said with confidence is the relationship between the two: scrap buyback is priced at a discount to the refined benchmark, not at parity with it, because the material still needs collecting, dismantling and smelting before it's sellable metal again.
- Refined benchmark, per gram: ₹0.17 (for reference)
- Refined benchmark, per kilogram: ₹167.41
- Refined benchmark, per metric tonne: ₹167,408.00
Benchmark Lead Price by Weight
Today's Lead rate is Less than One Rupees per gram. At this rate, 10 grams of Lead costs Two Rupees.
| Unit | Weight | Price (INR) | Price in Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Gram | 1.0000 g | ₹0.17 | Less than One Rupees |
| 8 Grams | 8.0000 g | ₹1.34 | One Rupees |
| 10 Grams | 10.0000 g | ₹1.67 | Two Rupees |
| 100 Grams | 100.0000 g | ₹16.74 | Seventeen Rupees |
| 1 Kilogram | 1,000.0000 g | ₹167.41 | One Hundred and Sixty Seven Rupees |
| 1 Ounce (oz) | 28.3495 g | ₹4.75 | Five Rupees |
| 1 Troy Ounce | 31.1035 g | ₹5.21 | Five Rupees |
| 1 Metric Ton | 1,000,000.0000 g | ₹167,408.00 | One Lakh Sixty Seven Thousand Four Hundred and Eight Rupees |
Primary Benchmark vs Secondary Scrap: Where the Gap Comes From
Think of lead pricing as sitting on a ladder. At the top is the LME-linked benchmark this page tracks — clean, refined metal, ready to sell into battery manufacturing or any other end use. Below that sits ingot made from reprocessed scrap, which trades close to the same benchmark once it's been refined back to standard purity. Below that again sits raw scrap itself — old batteries, cable sheathing, dross from smelting operations — the input material nobody can use directly yet.
Why the discount exists at all
A recycler buying your old battery isn't buying lead — not yet. They're buying a claim on the lead that's still locked inside plates, paste and casing, along with the sulfuric acid and plastic that have to be separated out first. Smelting that material back into usable metal costs energy, labor and equipment, and it doesn't recover every gram with zero loss. The discount from the benchmark is simply the market's way of pricing in that gap between raw input and finished metal, plus whatever margin the buyer needs to stay in business.
That gap isn't fixed. It moves with how much competition exists among local recyclers, how far the material has to travel, and the condition of what's being sold — clean, sorted battery scrap consistently does better than a mixed, contaminated lot. None of that changes what the benchmark itself is doing; it just determines how much of that benchmark actually reaches the seller.
Where Scrap Sits Relative to the Benchmark
| Stage | What it is | Priced how |
|---|---|---|
| Refined benchmark | Market-standard refined lead | This page's live rate |
| Reprocessed ingot | Scrap that's already been smelted and refined | Close to the benchmark |
| Raw battery/scrap | Unprocessed input material | Discounted from the benchmark |
Benchmark Lead Rate — Last 10 Days
The most recent Lead price on record (2026-09-18) is Less than One Rupees per gram.
| Date | Price (INR/g) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-18 | ₹0.17 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-17 | ₹0.17 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-16 | ₹0.17 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-15 | ₹0.16 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-14 | ₹0.16 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-13 | ₹0.16 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-12 | ₹0.16 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-11 | ₹0.17 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-10 | ₹0.17 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-09 | ₹0.17 | — |
Why Scrap Supply Is Bigger Than a Side Note Here
On most metals tracked on this site, recycling is a secondary story next to fresh mining. Lead runs the other way. A very large share of the metal in circulation today started life as a used battery, not freshly dug ore, and lead-acid batteries are consistently cited as among the most efficiently recycled consumer products in the world. That's not a marketing line — it reflects a genuinely mature collection-and-smelting infrastructure that's been built up over decades because the battery industry has depended on it for so long.
That matters for anyone reading this page for practical reasons, not just background. Scrap and battery buyback prices could move somewhat independently of the refined benchmark over short stretches — tightening if collection volumes slow, easing if they pick up — even while the benchmark itself stays roughly flat. Whether that gap narrows or widens next depends on factors this page won't pretend to predict: vehicle scrappage rates, regional recycling capacity, and how much competition exists among buyers in any given market.
For the demand side that ultimately drives all of this, the site's lead-acid batteries explained page covers why this decades-old battery chemistry keeps generating the steady stream of scrap that makes secondary lead such a large part of the supply picture in the first place.
Lead Scrap Pricing — FAQs
There's no single published number for that, and any site claiming otherwise is guessing. What this page tracks is the benchmark refined-lead rate — ₹167.41 per kilogram as of September 18, 2026 — which is the reference point every scrap or battery buyback deal gets negotiated against. The actual price a recycler pays you for scrap sits below that benchmark; how far below depends on the buyer, the material's condition, and local competition.
Because a used battery isn't usable metal yet. A recycler still has to collect it, break it down into lead plates, oxide paste and casing, run it through a secondary smelter, and refine the output back to a sellable purity. Every one of those steps costs money and carries some processing loss, so the buyback price gets set below the refined benchmark to leave room for that work and a margin on top.
No — they sit at different points in the same chain. Ingot is refined, smelted lead ready for use, so its price tracks close to the benchmark shown on this page. Scrap is the pre-processed input — old batteries, cable sheathing, dross — priced at a discount precisely because it still needs smelting before it becomes ingot again.
Lead-acid batteries are among the most efficiently recycled consumer products anywhere, and that efficient collection loop is exactly why secondary lead accounts for a large share of total supply rather than a marginal one. A car battery or a backup-power battery reaches the end of its life, gets returned through an established collection network, and comes back out as usable metal within a fairly short cycle — which is a big part of why scrap has real, active buyers rather than sitting as dead inventory.
Not one this page will invent. Buyback discounts vary by buyer, by region, by how much competition exists among local recyclers, and by the physical condition of what's being sold — a clean, well-sorted battery lot fetches a better rate than mixed or contaminated scrap. Treat any source quoting one fixed percentage nationwide with some skepticism.
It's the single most useful thing a seller can do, since the gap between the benchmark and what any one buyer offers isn't fixed or regulated. Getting quotes from more than one recycler, checking today's benchmark rate first, and asking how the buyer arrives at their number are all reasonable steps before agreeing to a price.
