The one question on the minds of metal traders and miners in London as they attend the London Metal Exchange (LME) Week jamboree is whether the Chinese demand will help the price of flagging metals, particularly copper, recover in 2020.
Most metal prices have fallen in 2019 because of weakness in commodity-hungry industries like car production and uncertainty with global trade.
Prices of the red metal, often a gauge of global economic health, used in power and construction, have been hurt by the trade issues between the United States and China.
Cooper had been particularly looked at because the recent unrest in Chile, the top producer of this metal, didn't do the metals industry any good.
Edward Meir, an analyst at brokerage ED&F Man Capital Markets said that all that is needed is for the demand cloud to lift.
China, accounting for half of the global consumption of refined copper, holds the answer to whether metals prices recover.
China's gross-domestic-product grew only 6% in the third quarter, the slowest on records dating since 1991.
However, William Hess, co-founder of advisory firm PRC Macro, said these data are unreliable guides on the direction of China's economy.
Hess added that he sees signs of improvements happening in late 2019 and early 2020.
He said that Chinese authorities are encouraging developers to stop buying new land and instead are urging them to complete more properties already underway.
These properties involve installing buildings with electrical wiring, good for the copper industry.
When it was reported on Thursday that Chinese officials privately are doubting reaching a long-term trade deal with the US, copper prices fell.
However, London copper prices on Friday rebounded when a private survey showed manufacturing activity in China was better than expected.
A China-based base metal analyst said that the market prices are up today "due to the Caixin data" but gave a reminder that the purchasing manager's index (PMI) data is limited.
LME copper decreased at a rate of 2% so far this year, after tumbling 18% in 2018.
However, should copper demand starts recovering, the insufficient supply will be the problem as top producer Chile stopped operations at several of its mines and ports because workers joined protests in the biggest political crisis in the South American country since 1990.
Likewise, local residents in Peru, the world's ninth-largest producer of copper, are blocking access to the Las Bambas mine demanding action with regards to their farmland being cut off by Peru's national highway and emissions from trucks being beyond the permitted limits.
Thought the Peruvian government gave the go signal to Southern Copper Corp. to build its long-delayed Tia Maria mine, Prime Minister Vicente Zeballos said he wouldn't "impose" the project on the country.
