Earth-i Copper Smelting Index – January 2020 Update

Copper smelting index increase during January to 90.1 (+0.1 from December)
18 February 2020 – The SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index, a unique index launched in October 2019 by Earth-i and Marex Spectron, showed a small increase in global copper smelting activity in January compared with December. The index strengthened throughout
the month from what had been low levels observed over the New Year period.
Observations from January include:
○ The January average was 90.1, up 0.2 from the December average of 88.9.
○ The range over the last 12 months has been 85.2 (April 2019) to 93.8 (July 2019).
○ Activity was particularly strong in Europe throughout January.
○ Smelter activity in China started to soften in December, suggesting that maintenance was being undertaken during the Christmas period.
○ Despite a slight recovery towards month-end, activity levels in China have reached their lowest since May 2018.
○ Where smelter activity appears to have ceased entirely in China, this has typically been in the low capacity sites.
Dr Guy Wolf, Marex Spectron’s Global Head of Analytics, commented: “The index readings suggest that Chinese smelters had been intending to bring production back online in the early part of January. Whilst the readings have been soft, they do not display the extreme weakness that was feared. Despite the coronavirus outbreak, the evidence is that production has been curtailed rather than stopped, particularly at the larger sites.”
Savant Index (China) from Feb-2018 to Jan-2020

Earth-i provides unique insights and analytics through Earth Observation. It utilises industry leading access to more than thirty multi-sensor / multi-resolution satellites and has developed advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-led analytics to build on its satellite image processing expertise. Earth-i launched its own Earth Observation satellite in 2018, capable of collecting high definition colour videos from space.
The SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index monitors up to 90% of the smelting capacity for copper around the globe. Using daily updated sources, including extensive use of geospatial data collected from satellites, the index reports on the activities at the world’s smelting plants offering subscribers unprecedented levels of coverage, accuracy and reliability. This dataset allows users to make better informed and more timely trading decisions.
To find out more please visit www.earthi.space/savant.
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