foreign news on may 5, satellite monitoring data of metal processing plants released on friday showed that global copper smelting activity fell to the lowest level in two years in april, as chinese smelters were closed for maintenance and production at north american factories slowed. smelters in central asia, turkey and kazakhstan were idled at the end of the month, commodity brokers marex and sa vant satellite services said in a statement.
the global copper dispersion index, which measures smelter activity, fell to 44.0 in april from 46.8 in march, according to earth-i, which specializes in observational data. the april figure was the lowest since march 2021. the north american regional dispersion index fell to 24.2, the weakest level since july 2020. a reading of 50 points indicates that smelter operations are at the average level over the past 12 months.
