Korean made Exide car batteries....?

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I was out at the local Rural King on my lunch hour, picking up some supplies... and noticed some unfamiliar (almost odd) looking batteries in the battery rack? New supplier maybe?

Nope. What I found was a Group 34/78 dual terminal (my favorite), with labelling stating that it was indeed an Exide, but it was made in Korea.

It was a very boxy shape with hard edges and a completely recessed handle. It also had an "eye", that made me think back to the ACDelco batteries of the 70's and 80's. The typical Exide date sticker on it stated it was shipped in December, 2017. The rating was the same as before, 650 CCA and 100 RC.

Pictures? Why yes.




 
I've had good luck with the Rural King battery in the Matrix which is over 5yrs old. And yes made by Exide. Price is right too and they installed it.
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I bought a Duralast battery for my truck that was made in Korea. Not happy. I'll look elsewhere next time. A good friend of mine is a firefighter for a big city and says car battery fires are on the rise. He says he has seen five car battery fires in the past 2 years. More than he has in the previous 18 years. These are car fires known to originate at the battery he states. I wonder if there is a rise in import car batteries. It would appear that way.
 
Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
Looks like competition for the JCI Made in Korea batteries sold at Walmart.

Link


Hmmmm... so someone over there is making these for whomever wants to buy 'em in bulk and slap their name on them.

Anyone know who?
 
I trust the South Koreans to build a better battery
than wherever Exide is having their junk batteries made right now.
 
I know this is dumb to say but it's amazing that it's cheaper to make heavy lead batteries overseas and ship them in than produce them locally.

What a world.
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I know this is dumb to say but it's amazing that it's cheaper to make heavy lead batteries overseas and ship them in than produce them locally.

What a world.


The differences in today's environmental regulations probably make it cheaper to make heavy lead batteries overseas and to ship them.
 
To my knowledge there are no working lead mines left in the USA.

So, if I'm importing lead for batteries, does it make more business sense to import lead ingots, or import finished product? The difference in weight is negligible.

What troubles me most on imports from Korea these days is few such imports specify Made in South Korea specifically. With the big industrial park in North Korea that's like a maquiladora but worse, South Korea can "rent" North Korean labor by paying fees to the North Korean government for workers & labor (and I doubt much if any of those fees trickle down to the actual laborers). Materials and machinery are doubtless supplied by the South Korean businesses with such arrangements. Daewha, the original manufacturer of the STP XL oil filters, is a notable example of such a business using this facility since 2006.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region

I honestly prefer "Made in China" to Made in Korea" now for this reason.
 
Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
To my knowledge there are no working lead mines left in the USA.

From what I gathered it appears there should be at least 3 lead mines active. The Doe Run Company is a US based business that is heavily invested in lead mining and recycling. Apart from that I don't see anyone touching lead anymore.
 
Amazing - wonder how much longer it'll last in terms of mining?

The recycling facility will have plenty of business (until legislation requires spent batteries to be exported for recycling).
 
Aren't most batteries made from recycled lead?

In which case once they are collected here, wouldn't it make sense to recycle and make new batteries here instead of shipping them twice?
 
Sense? Legislation? In the same discussion?

That smelter in MO was slated for closure in 2013. I don't know what Doe Run did to keep it open, but I'm confident it's a stay of execution.

How long before lead battery recycling will be treated like consumer electronics recycling?
 
I hope this Exide battery does good for you. Like SatinSilver who's Rural King battery lasted 5 years. Quite good I must say.
 
All this new battery technology and here we are chatting about shuffling lead around the globe.

It seems to back up (or at least dovetail with) my theory that the battery industry WANTS TO abandon ancient, 19th Century technology.....even if it does work.

Just how poisonous lead compounds are is what we need to know.
 
Doe Run is U.S. based, but not sure they are still mining around here. (South of STL)

I believe they had or still have operations in South America. I heard them mentioned while I was in Peru a dozen or so years ago.

FWIW.

Originally Posted By: Run
Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
To my knowledge there are no working lead mines left in the USA.

From what I gathered it appears there should be at least 3 lead mines active. The Doe Run Company is a US based business that is heavily invested in lead mining and recycling. Apart from that I don't see anyone touching lead anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: CharlieBauer
Aren't most batteries made from recycled lead?

In which case once they are collected here, wouldn't it make sense to recycle and make new batteries here instead of shipping them twice?


Unless labor costs are just that high!
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
All this new battery technology and here we are chatting about shuffling lead around the globe.

It seems to back up (or at least dovetail with) my theory that the battery industry WANTS TO abandon ancient, 19th Century technology.....even if it does work.

Just how poisonous lead compounds are is what we need to know.


It depends on the specific lead compound, such values are well established, but we have an ongoing case study created by bureaucracy in Flint, MI as we speak. We're mining lead municipal water supply pipes that worked well for decades with proper chemical treatment of the water until a different water source was selected without supplemental chemical treatment being provided. Who knows how many more municipalities will wind up doing the same lead pipe removal to mitigate potential future error? The last community we lived in, in NW Ohio, was examining just such a course of action in the older parts of the city when we left in 2016.

MTBE use in gasoline was banned in tbe US because we couldn't implement a working underground storage tank leak detection & mitigation program at the time. Much of the rest of the world still uses MTBE in gasoline, particularly Europe.
 
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