Lead Price Per Pound: Exchange Rate, Scrap Grades and Batteries

LME lead settled between $1,890 and $1,905 per metric ton on 20–21 August 2026 — that is $0.86–$0.87 per pound for refined metal. US scrap yards are paying a national average of $0.44–$0.45 per pound for clean soft lead, $0.19 for lead-acid batteries, and $0.10–$0.20 for wheel weights. The yard-to-exchange spread is running about 48–83%, which is normal for lead.

The exchange price

Lead is one of the few scrap metals with a clean daily benchmark. Three independent sources agree closely as of this week.

Lead has been rangebound roughly between $1,900 and $2,200 per tonne since 2022. It is down about 3.5% year over year but up 1.7% on the month. Trading Economics forecasts around $1,886/MT at quarter end and $1,822/MT in twelve months. Nothing in the data suggests a spike is coming. Battery demand is stable and the market carries a persistent surplus, which is exactly the condition that keeps lead flat.

For a scrapper, the practical meaning is that timing does not pay much on lead. Copper rewards patience; lead does not. Sell when you have volume.

Scrap lead prices by grade

Soft and clean lead

Sheet lead, lead pipe, roof flashing, lead ingot, and diving weights. No steel clips, no paint, no attachments. This is the top of the ordinary lead market at $0.44–$0.45 national average, with good yards at $0.52–$0.55 and poor ones at $0.30–$0.34. The sources agree well here: two independent surveys put the national average within a penny of each other on consecutive days.

Soft lead is down about 9.3% over the past 90 days per Scrap Monitor. That tracks the exchange being off its June high.

Wheel weights — where the sources disagree

This is the one grade where published data genuinely conflicts, and you should know it before you haul a load.

• Yard-reported surveys cluster low. iScrap App at $0.14/lb (19 Aug 2026), Scrap Monitor at $0.15/lb (14 Aug 2026), Okon Recycling at $0.10–$0.15 (Sep 2025), ScrapVisor at $0.11 (Dec 2025).
• Index and dealer sources run higher. ScrapMonster at $0.26/lb (19 May 2026, and flagged on their own site as three months delayed), ScrapMetalBuyers at $0.25–$0.35.

The honest answer is $0.10–$0.35 per pound, with most walk-in yards paying $0.10–$0.20. Do not average those into one number. The high end is real but localized — Scrap Monitor lists individual yards at $0.30 in Arizona, $0.26 in New York, and $0.20 in Ohio and Minnesota, against $0.10 in Oklahoma. That is a three-to-one spread between yards in the same country in the same week.

Wheel weights are discounted hard because clip-on weights come with steel clips, zinc weights are now mixed into the stream, and the yard has to sort or accept the loss. Pull the steel clips and separate any weight that is not lead, and you move toward the top of the range.

Lead-acid batteries

Two independent surveys both landed at exactly $0.19/lb national average on 20 August 2026, from separate yard panels. That is as solid as scrap data gets. A typical car battery weighs 30–40 lb, so figure $5.70–$7.60 each. Prices have been rising over the past three months, though the 52-week range of $0.10–$0.47 shows how much this grade moves.

Do not break batteries open. Whole batteries are worth more than the lead inside them because the buyer is permitted to process them and you are not. Cracking a case to pull plates converts a saleable commodity into a hazardous waste problem you now own.

Range lead and shot

Fired bullets recovered from berms and backstops averaged $0.34/lb on 17 August 2026 per ScrapMonster. Unfired shot and ballast quote higher at $0.35–$0.45. Range lead pays below clean soft lead because it arrives with dirt, jacket copper, and sand, and because the buyer has to assume contamination until proven otherwise. Screen and wash range lead before you sell it and the offer improves.

Regional spread

Lead has one of the widest geographic spreads in common scrap, driven by distance to the nearest secondary smelter.

Note South Carolina appearing at both $0.52 and $0.34 in the same dataset. Two yards, one state, an 18-cent gap. Calling three yards is worth more than reading any price index, including this one.

The spread against the exchange

Yard prices for soft lead average roughly 48–52% of the LME reference, and Scrap Monitor characterises the normal discount band as 48–83%. Wheel weights sit near the bottom of that band. If a yard is offering you less than about 35% of the exchange price on clean soft lead — under $0.30 with lead at $0.86 — you are being underpaid.

Where to sell lead

• General scrap yards handle lead fine. Unlike Inconel or magnesium, lead is a routine commodity and most yards buy it competently. Volume discounts run the wrong way — small loads get the floor price.
• Battery distributors and auto parts stores pay core value on batteries, often more than a scrap yard, and many states require them to accept returns.
• Secondary lead smelters buy direct at volume. Fewer than a dozen operate in the US. If you generate tons rather than pounds, going direct is worth the freight.
• Range reclamation contractors specialise in shooting range lead and will often do the recovery work for a share of the metal.

Bring ID. Most states require photo identification and a record of sale for lead, and some impose hold periods.

Handling and legal

Lead is a cumulative toxin. The rules exist because people got sick.

• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1025 sets the general industry permissible exposure limit at 50 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average, with an action level of 30 µg/m³ that triggers monitoring and medical surveillance. Construction work falls under 29 CFR 1926.62.
• Never torch, burn, or melt lead without ventilation. Lead fumes above roughly 900°F, and fume is far more dangerous than dust because it goes deep into the lungs.
• Do not eat, drink, or smoke around lead. Wash hands and face before you do any of those. Ingestion is the main route for most scrappers, not inhalation.
• Do not take work clothes home. Lead dust on clothing has poisoned families of workers repeatedly. This is documented, not theoretical.
• Spent lead-acid batteries are regulated under RCRA. Most handlers manage them under the universal waste rule (40 CFR 273) or the spent lead-acid battery provisions (40 CFR 266 Subpart G). Keep them upright, uncracked, and covered.
• Do not mix lithium-ion batteries into lead-acid. Lithium cells in a lead stream cause fires at the processor and will get you banned from the yard.
• Range lead may be a regulated soil contaminant depending on your state. Reclamation from an outdoor berm can trigger environmental obligations that selling clean sheet lead does not.

Where sources conflict — wheel weights most of all — both figures are shown rather than blended. Call your local yards for a live quote.

Related scrap price guides

• Scrap Car Battery Price Today: What Yards Are Actually Paying
• Scrap Metal Prices 2026: Complete Rate Index by Material