The lower numbers we have seen have attracted buying interest from a combination of end-users and speculators particularly from China.

Investment funds believe that there's more move on the upside.

In this situation, where you have strong global growth, constraints on the supply side and a general decline in inventories, prices will continue higher.

Zinc prices are up on low capacity utilization rates at Chinese zinc smelters due to concentrate shortage, and strong demand driven by galvanized steel.

Besides, an increasing number of strikes have lead to disruptions in supplies.

There are many supporting factors. The uptrend will remain in place.

The decline in US aluminum consumption in 2005 involved a great deal of de-stocking. As such, we expect strong buying appetite on any price weakness as order books are looking healthy.

The prospect of demand growth and low inventories will continue to drive prices going forward.

Supply concerns at the forefront of market attention and any threats to production are feeding straight through to price.

I think we are still in the early stages of the bull trend in copper. We have years of strong prices ahead of us.