Base metals prices are pulling back to consolidate this morning, Tuesday January 17, with three-month prices on the London Metal Exchange down an average of 1% as of 06:08 GMT with the pullback been done at quite a high volume of 11,288 lots.

Metals – or commodities generally – are no longer the pariah class, as funds once again dip their toes into the pool, Lord Copper asserts as he looks to the year ahead with cautious optimism.

At the start of 2016 the mood was dire – metals prices were trading around multi-year lows in thin trading conditions. Speculators and funds shunned the complex and, with a poor global economic outlook, the outlook was bleak.

Modestly higher interest rates in the USA are not expected to have much of an impact on metal markets, according to industry sources.

Metal Bulletin's price reporters look forward to the major issues and industry trends that face the base metals industry in 2017.

The weight of long copper positions on the London Metal Exchange has eased as prices have fallen, but traders are unwilling to heavily short in the current volatile price environment, market participants told Metal Bulletin.

Mining companies have radically overhauled the case for investment this year.

The dinner suits and posh frocks have hardly been put away since last week’s annual LME dinner but already there are signs that this most collective of “group hugs” in the metals industry has resulted in some much-needed price action on the upside and a jump in volumes on the exchange.

In the wake of an unexpectedly bullish LME Week, copper prices are on track to record the first annual increase in four years, reflecting growing confidence that demand could outperform next year at the same time as mine supply growth splutters.

With sufficient copper supply from the domestic market and an arbitrage window that remained largely shut this year, growing Chinese copper imports suggests demand from financing still exists.