Global copper smelting recovers in April as prices rally

LONDON: Global copper smelting rebounded in April from the lowest levels in at least five years in the previous month as a price rally spurred more activity, data from satellite surveillance of copper plants showed.

The first half of April was still weak, but smelting activity increased throughout the rest of the month, satellite service SAVANT and broker Marex said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

"The margin pressures smelters faced from a shortage of concentrates was evident in the extremely weak readings that we saw in March ... Copper prices have since rallied aggressively," said Guy Wolf, global head of analytics at Marex, which helped to develop SAVANT.

"The platform now suggests we are seeing the effect of that price rally with a strong increase in smelter activity in the latter part of April."

Benchmark copper prices on the London Metal Exchange have jumped by 29% so far this year, breaking through $10,000 a tonne for first time in a decade.

Earth-i, which specialises in geospatial data, launched its SAVANT service late last year, tracking more than 100 smelters representing 80% to 90% of global production.

It sells data to fund managers, traders and miners and publishes a free monthly index of global copper smelter activity.

Its global dispersion index rose to an average of 43.6 in April from 39.8 a month earlier. The March reading was the lowest ever monthly average in the dataset, which goes back to March 2016.

Under SAVANT's dispersion index, 50 points indicate smelters are operating at the average level of the last 12 months. It also has a second index showing the percentage of active smelters.

The dispersion index for China, the world's top refined copper producer, increased to 44.3 in April from 40.7 in March. Europe climbed to 37.7 in April from 32.4 a month before while North America edged up to 33.1 from 32.3 in March.