Mike Ronald, a Filipino merchandizer of a food company here, bought a maintenance-free battery last weekend to replace the old battery of his car that had gone dead. He was surprised when charged SR280 for the unit – up from about SR120 a year ago. “This new round of increase in prices of essential products, like battery, is hard on consumers already burdened by increases in house rent, food, and other basic needs,” Ronald said. Ronald gets a monthly transportation allowance of SR500. He uses his own car for his daily rounds of supermarkets, and shoulders the costs of petrol and maintenance. “This month I will have to shell out that SR280 cost of the battery from the monthly remittance to my family. Salarries for expats like me are shrinking,” he said. Ronald said the shop owner who sold him his new battery, which was locally made, explained to him that car accessories, like tire and batteries, were costlier because manufacturers and importers have increased their wholesale prices. A Saudi Gazette survey of the market showed that prices of imported batteries from Japan, Korea, China, and Indonesia, among others, range from SR200 to SR290. “Motorists are buying the better brands because they last longer in our harsh climate. Buyers are complaining, but what can we do,” one seller in Dammam said. Importers and local manufacturers of batteries said the hike in prices is mainly due to the increase in the cost of lead, which makes up 90 percent of the components in battery production. “Lead as raw material now cost $3,600 per ton, compared to $1,500-$1,700 several months ago. Manufacturers are trying their best to absorb some of the additional production costs, but those current prices are how far they can go,” said Nawaf Ateeq, marketing specialist of the largest company in the Middle East that manufacturers maintenance free batteries for all cars, models and makes. “We buy our lead from a local supplier; this source also is not giving us better price because they also spend big money in removing the impurities of lead they extract from spent batteries,” Ateeq said. Lead, like gold, is priced based on the international pricing commodity board. This is why local suppliers of lead; although they are locally refined and sold, mark their price similar to that prevailing in the international market. The only local company that recycles discarded batteries is making good business now because of the high cost of lead. This company buys used batteries only by the tons at the buying rate of SR3,300 per ton. “We encourage those who are in the trade of collecting spent batteries to sell them to us by tons,” the marketing executive of the company said. “Collecting used batteries and selling them to us is good business. Motorist who discarded their old battery can also sell it for SR40 depending upon the brand,” he said. __
