%{{tag.tag}} {{articledata.title}} {{moment(articledata.cdate)}} @{{articledata.company.replace(" ","")}} comment Copper's price is up 5% in the last week and near an all-time high as demand remains strong and Chinese smelters see record activity levels. Copper's price closed at a 10-week high on April 17, rising to $6.11 U.S. per pound or $13,480 U.S. a tonne in New York. The price of the red industrial metal is now very close to its all-time high closing price reached in January of this year. The price increase comes as March smelter activity hit record levels in China, continuing an upward trend that is being driven by strong global demand. Chinese smelters saw all-time high active capacity of 10.73 million tonnes in March, more than 775,000 tonnes higher than a year ago and 1.49 million tonnes above the three-year average. However, outside China, with the exception of Africa where the central copper belt showed strong performance, activity fell. In Iran two smelters with combined capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year are currently offline due to the country's war with the U.S. Commodities analysts generally see continued upside in the price of copper as demand soars for its use in artificial intelligence (A.I.) data centres as well as in gas turbines and solar panels.