Consumption , lead trends

Lead sheet is used in the building industry throughout continental Europe and to a lesser extent Australia, but hardly at all in the USA. Other aspects of lead consumption follow the same general trends worldwide. 

Flegal AR, Coale KH. 1989. Trends in lead concentrations in major U.S. rivers and their relation to historical changes in gasoline-lead consumption. Water Res Bull 25 1275-1277. 

The demand for lead, as one would expect, is closely related to such factors as price (of lead and substitute materials), trends in industrial production (specifically, in major lead-consuming sectors like construction and vehicles) and aggregate economic growth (as measured by changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or some other suitable indicator). Thus, lead consumption can be observed to follow a cyclical pattern, matching stages in the broader... 

However, in many respects lead is probably among the least cyclical of all the major metals in terms of consumption. A latge and growing proportion of lead consumption is accounted for by the replacement SU battery market, which in the short term is more directly influenced by seasonal weather patterns (specifically by extremes of temperature), and in the long term by trends in vehicle ownership and use, than by changes in industrial production or overall economic growth. 

SLl battery demand is intimately related to trends in vehicle production and vehicle usage (including both cars and commercial vehicles). Of these two, however, it is vehicle population that has the greatest bearing on lead consumption, as would be expected given the overwhelming importance of the replacement battery market. 

These trends illustrate several of the developments that we have examined so far the close relationship between changes in economic activity and lead consumption, the heightened impact of economisation and substitution on lead demand since the early 1970s, and changing patterns of lead consumption growth in the world economy. The last of these, regional consumption trends, is considered in more detail in the following section. 

Table 13-1 Regional trends in lead consumption, 1960-90 (per cent share of Western World consumption)...

The various applications of lead and influences on usage have been examined in some depth in previous chapters. Here, historical developments in consumption are summarised by principal end-use. Analysis of long-term trends in usage is restricted by data a ilability to the large developed industrialised economies, but this is not a serious problem given their dominant position in world lead consumption. Information is also now more widely and consistently available for several other countries, as indicated. 

Fig. 19. Trends in the lead industry in the United States (—), total consumption (-), total production and (-), secondary production. The...

Environmental regulations and trends are leading to a decay in the consumption of PVC. Plastics comprise 17% of all materials used in packaging and package over 50% of consumer goods. The future is promising for many reasons ... 

Conversion of lactose into edible protein for animal or human consumption has appeal because of trends in nutrition which emphasize the importance of protein in diets. The high content of purines and pyrimidines in yeast cells is a limitation in consumption of yeasts by humans. These materials in the diet can lead to high levels of uric acid in blood, which may then lead to gout. Principles underlying microbiological conversion of sugars to protein have been available for many years. 

Trends in commercial fuel, eg, fossil fuel, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, production and consumption in the United States and in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, are shown in Tables 2 and 3. These trends indicate (6,13) (/) a significant resurgence in the production and use of coal throughout the U.S. economy (2) a continued decline in the domestic U.S. production of crude oil and natural gas leading to increased imports of these hydrocarbons (qv) and (5) a continued trend of energy conservation, expressed in terms of energy consumed per... 

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