Document mbz1xVXEO4nYQy4pN3495gve4

St. Joe Lead Company, the nation's largest lead producer, operates four mine/mill complexes in southeastern Missouri. The aggregate mine capacity of 20,000 tons of ore per day feeds lead concentrate to St. Joe's Herculaneum, Missouri, smelter, the largest lead smelter in the U.S., with a rated capacity of 230,000 tons of refined lead per year. The Lead Company is also responsible for the operation and administration of St. Joe's Pea Ridge iron mine and pelletizing plant located near Sullivan, Missouri. St. Joe's lead operation had a record year in 1978 with smelter production, sales and profitability reaching new highs. In 1978 St. Joe's Missouri mines produced 336,888 tons of lead con centrate, compared with 342,573 tons in 1977. Refined lead metal produced in 1978 totaled 240,305 tons, up from 228,780 tons in 1977. Sales reached $176,747,000, up from $147,280,000 in 1977. Operating profit amounted to $79,474,000, compared with $66,009,000 one year ago. 8 Battery Demand Up The sales record achieved by the Lead Company was primarily due to the strong demand for batteries. Sales to the battery industry accounted for over 60% of St. Joe's lead sales. Approxi mately 20% of St. Joe's sales to the battery industry are for units to be used as original equipment in new cars, while the remaining 80% are for replace ment battery applications. 1978 was a good year for the U.S. auto indus try with 9,300,000 cars being sold domestically, an increase of 200,000. Replacement battery sales generally increase as the thermometer drops, and the winter of 1977-78, one of the sever est on record, helped contribute to increased battery sales and lead consumption. Broadening Acceptance for Maintenance-Free Battery In 1978, an estimated 29% of all auto motive batteries utilized the mainte nance-free lead alloys promoted by St. Joe, up from 13% in 1976 and 20% in 1977. While in 1978 General Motors Corporation equipped all its new do mestic cars and light trucks with main tenance-free batteries, virtually all orig inal equipment automotive batteries in 1980 are expected to be of the new type. In addition to providing superior per formance, the maintenance-free battery allows manufacturers the option to trim , battery weight, tying in with the auto i industry program to improve gas mile- i age through weight reduction. \ St. Joe pioneered the development of, the lead-calcium-tin alloys used in mosti maintenance-free batteries, and subse-i quently developed precision wrought alloys. Coils of the wrought alloys are i used by battery manufacturers to feed i battery grid fabrication processes manyl times faster than conventional cast gridf manufacturing techniques. St. Joe is c completing in mid-1979 a wrought leadt strip plant at Herculaneum designed to produce up to 30,000 tons of lead strip t per year. e St. Joe's involvement in the cast ands wrought alloy battery grid market repre-1 sents an increase in the market potentiag for its lead products. Previously St. Joer supplied lead to the battery industry onlji for production of the lead oxide active : material, accounting for about 50% of i the use of lead in batteries. Now, St. Joec supplies lead suitable for the needs of 3 the entire battery. 3 Growing Sales in Other Markets Sales of batteries for forklift trucks, golfl carts, delivery vans and other "traction s