The future looks bright for Base Metals

Base metals are likely to remain resistant for the foreseeable future, the revival comes amid expectation that demand from the user industry and consumption levels are expected to outpace 

those of supply in 2017, after a number of the world’s major suppliers announced they would be cutting production levels. After a sharp decline, non-ferrous metals led by lead jumped by up 

to 12.39 per cent in the past month following hopes for a pick-up in industrial activities the world over. Delay in the interest rate upward revision by the US Federal Reserve’s has also supported 

base metals by a large extent. Copper, meanwhile, remained resilient.

“Copper price is likely to remain range-bound in the short term ranging between $4,800 and $5,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME) with an upward bias for medium- to long-term 

to $5,500 a tonne,” said P Ramnath, chief executive officer of Sterlite Copper, a Vedanta Group company.

Analysts, however, believe that the supply deficit forecast by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) for 2016 and 2017 on production cut announced by major global producers would support 

copper price to move upwards. In its latest monthly release, ICSG forecast the refined copper production deficit of around 306,000 tonnes for the first half of 2016 compared to a deficit of 227,000 

tonnes for the comparative period last year. This means, the deficit is widening with expectations of aggravating further in future.