Automotive and industrial battery major Exide Industries is keeping a close watch on how the geopolitics unfurl after the company saw an unprecedented rise in the price of a key raw material called antimony, following export controls from China, which accounts for an over 40 per cent of the world’s supply of the metalloid.
Antimony is used as a raw material in the production of lead acid batteries. But it also has a wider application in the military as a hardening alloy in the production of bullets.
In August 2024, Beijing announced the imposition of export limits on antimony and related elements, citing national security. This has caught civilian industries that use antimony as a raw material off guard. With initial restrictions taking effect in September, the rules triggered a stockpiling rush that caused shipments to surge in August and September.
As a follow-up, in December, China imposed an outright ban on exports to the US of several critical minerals, including antimony, which further jacked up the global prices
“Nobody anticipated it. Unfortunately, it’s geopolitics and not a normal fluctuation of commodity prices,” Avik Roy, MD and CEO of Exide Industries, told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Roy said that the prices increased by around six-fold in a matter of months. Exide imports most of its requirements, and as a result, even as the company has passed on the increase in cost as a price rise in three tranches aggregating to around 5 per cent, there was still a net impact of around ₹50 crore during the fourth quarter of FY25, according to disclosure to the analysts.
“It’s not that availability is a concern as there are other countries that we can import from. It’s just that the prices of antimony have significantly increased. In April, prices have stabilised compared with March, but I don’t see them coming down very soon. We are keeping a close watch on the developments,” said Roy.
Roy, however, remains optimistic on the demand for lead-acid batteries across most of its business verticals in FY26. The company has set its sights on clocking a business of around ₹20,000 crore over the next 2-3 years from its current business of lead-acid batteries, having ended FY25 with a standalone revenue from operations of ₹16,588 crore.
He also said that the company is on track to commence the first phase of its lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant in Bangalore in FY26. The first phase will have a capacity of 6 GWh (gigawatt-hour), and the battery major has already invested equity of around ₹3,600 crore in its wholly owned subsidiary Exide Energy Solutions Limited. The first phase will require an estimated investment of around ₹5,000 crore.
