According to new data from satellite surveillance of metal processing plants released on Tuesday, in August global copper smelting activity was largely flat for the month, as a rise in activity by top refined producer China was offset by weaker activity elsewhere.

In a statement on the research, commodities broker Marex and the SAVANT satellite service noted that of the 37 primary smelters which are monitored in China, only four were inactive by the end of last month.

Guy Wolf, global head of analytics at Marex said, “August is always an interesting month for the copper midstream as smelters in China ramp up production ahead of the seasonal construction peak in September and October.”

Specializing in observational data, Earth-i tracks a number of smelters which are responsible for as much as 90% of total global production. It markets its data for traders, fund managers, and miners, and releases a free monthly index which tracks copper smelting activity globally.

In August, its global dispersion index fell to 46.7, from July’s reading of 46.8, despite a recovery in Chinese smelting, which rose from 44.8 in July to 48.1 in August. July had been the weakest reading in China since October of 2022.

In the index, a reading of 50 represents a level of smelting activity equal to the average of the previous 12 months. Anything over 50 represents an increase in activity, and anything less than 50 represents a contraction of activity.

In South America and North America activity was weak, with dispersion readings of 41 for South America, and 30.9 for North America.

Nickel saw its global dispersion index in August rebound to 47.3, from 40.0 in July, which marked an end of an eight month stretch of continuous declines.

The nickel pig iron (NPI) index increased by 9.9 points, reaching an average of 52.3 for August. However by the month’s end, half of the 28 NPI operations monitored had become inactive, as Chinese activity fell back sharply.