The bulls are back. Industrial metals such as copper bore the brunt of last year’s financial turmoil, shaking belief in a “supercycle” of rising prices. Now, though, they are enjoying a renewed wave of investor interest.
As a group, metals recorded their best monthly performance in January since December 2010, with the basket of London Metal Exchange futures rising 10.9 per cent, led by a 26.5 per cent surge in the price of tin.
The rally in prices has reawakened talk of copper reaching $10,000 a tonne, a level briefly exceeded amid last February’s optimism but which looked increasingly unlikely as prices tumbled to a low of $6,635 a tonne in October. Since the start of this year, the red metal has risen 11 per cent to trade yesterday at $8,440.