China, a key supplier of both metals, was benefiting from these small bright spots in the otherwise gloomy metals trade. Bismuth, used in pharmaceutical products and in cartridges for hunting rifles, has a consumption base somewhat immune to swings in industrial cycles, while indium demand was buoyed by the electronics industry, they said.

Spot Chinese bismuth, CIF Rotterdam, was quoted at $3.00/$3.20 per lb. Unlike other strategic metals, whose prices spiralled lower amid surplus, bismuth was well bid, traders said.

"It's hard to buy at or below $3.00," a trader in Hong Kong said. But some Chinese sources said that bismuth had difficulty shaking off the influence of weakness in other metals.

"All the minor metals are doing poorly. Bismuth happens to have fallen not as much," a trader said. The Hunan Chenzhou Shizhuyuan Non-ferrous Metal Mine, the largestbismuth producer in China, was producing about 200 tonnes this year for export, industry sources said.

A manager at the mine told Reuters by telephone that revenues from its bismuth exports this year would total about $1.5 million.

He denied a report in the Hunan Daily last month that the mine increased its annual production capacity to 700 tonnes.

"We have about 300 tonnes of capacity. That's all," he said.

Indium was another bright spot in the gloomy minor metals scene, traders said.

Used by electronic manufacturers for making liquid crystal display screens, indium prices held steady as popular demand for flat-Screen terminals grew, they said.

"Producers and manufacturers are holding serious contract negotiations now," said a foreign trader.

While producers appeared united in defending a threshold price for indium, manufacturers would bide their time, waiting for bargains, he said.

Spot indium was quoted at $195/$220 per kg, CIF Rotterdam. "The manufacturers would buy large amounts if priceswere to drop to $180/$190," the trader said.

Meanwhile, the stalemate continued as manufacturers could still rely on stockpiles built up earlier this year, he said. Elsewhere among the minor metals, magnesium prices were little changed after the European Union (EU) last week slapped five-year anti-dumping duties on the metal from China.

Spot magnesium was bid at $1,900 per tonne and offered at $2,050. Chinese traders said the ruling was expected after the EU had imposed a temporary anti-dumping duty six months ago.

The variable duty was equal to an ad valorem duty of 31.7 per cent, bringing the minimum price to $3,094 per tonne.