After some consolidation at the end of last week, further strength has returned to the base metals this week, with copper prices pushing the envelope on the upside, while the rest of the complex has also seen prices head back towards recent highs.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are up by an average of 0.4% this morning, Thursday July 20, with gains fairly tightly bunched between 0.2% for zinc and tin and 0.7% for lead. Three-month copper prices are up 0.3% at $5,983 per tonne – volume has been below average at 4,300 lots as of 06:09 BST.

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.

Base metals on the London Metal Exchange are on divergent paths this morning, Friday June 30, with three-month copper and nickel prices firmer by 0.4%, with copper at $5,947 per tonne, aluminium and zinc prices are little changed, while lead and tin are off either side of 0.4%.

Base metals on the London Metal Exchange are up across the board this morning, Friday June 16, as they were yesterday morning.

Base metals on the London Metal Exchange are up across the board this morning, Thursday June 15, with prices up by an average of 0.6%. The move has happened at a higher than average volume of 8,685 lots as of 07:03 BST.

Prices in the international steel billet market moved in different directions in the week ended Friday May 18 with the factors influencing market decisions varying from region to region.

Scrap prices in the global markets continued to go down during the working week from Monday April 17 to Friday April 21, with falling steel prices in China.

Base metals prices were weaker again this morning, Thursday April 20, with three-month prices on the London Metal Exchange down an average of 1% as of 06:38 BST, with zinc and lead prices off the most with losses of 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively, copper prices are off 0.7% at $5,557 per tonne, while aluminium prices are off the least with a 0.2% drop to $1,908.50 per tonne. Prices have since started to rebound.

Manganese ore inventories in Chinese ports have dropped 50% since April 2017 despite higher imports and almost unchanged silico-manganese production in 2017, according to Metal Bulletin data; Metal Bulletin asks why during the 19th Asian Ferro-Alloys Conference held in Hong Kong.