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.

The CME is open to adding other contracts to its industrial metal portfolio, global head of metals products Young-Jin Chang said in an interview during LME Week in London.

If “challenging” was the word that many metals market participants used to summarise 2016 at the start of LME Week, they might be ending the week on a slightly more optimistic note.

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Sentiment is bullish for the copper market for the coming year amid possible supply strain from the mining side and higher-than-expected demand from China, while expectations for lower processing fees for copper concentrate are growing.

Copper prices are expected to average $2.15 per lb (about $4,739 per tonne) this year and $2.20 per lb next year, with the red metal unlikely to return to super cycle highs, according to the mining minister of Chile.

Freeport-McMoRan expects lower contractual treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for copper concentrates next year, reflecting the company’s expectation that an unexpectedly strong period for mined copper production may soon end, senior vp of sales and marketing Javier Targhetta told Metal Bulletin.