As market activity wound down ahead of the year-end, prices were unlikely to move much from current weak levels, but low stocks and a possible pick-up in consumer electronic demand were likely to give indium prices a boost next year, traders said.

"If demand from the electronic sector picks up, stocks could drop very quickly," a trader said. Electronic manufacturers, who use indium in making liquid crystal display screens, have been drawing down their own inventories while engaging in protracted bargaining with producers, traders said.

Prices of Chinese indium, CIF Rotterdam, have been hovering around $200/210 per kg. In June, prices stood at around $300 per kg.

Domestic indium price was bid at 1.70 million yuan ($205,314) per tonne, about the same level as in Rotterdam. In China, indium is mostly produced as a by-product of zincmining, and the country has rich indium/zinc resources.

Liuzhou China Tin Corp, which boasts some of the best indium deposits in China, preferred stockpiling its indium to selling at depressed prices, a company official said.

The Liuzhou official also said the company had resumed an expansion of an indium/zinc smelter stalled since late 1996 in the belief the market would improve.

It would take a few years before the plant reached full production of 43 tonnes of indium a year from about 5.0 tonnes this year, the official said.

Foreign traders said the greatest uncertainty in the indium market next year was whether Ukraine would dump its huge stockpile for badly needed foreign exchange.

"Given the distressed economic situation in Ukraine and Russia, the danger is from a flood of Ukrainian supplies," a trader said.

Ukraine has been struggling with a severe Financial crisis since August to meet its obligations to foreign investors.

Ukraine's indium, renowned for its purity, was favoured byinternational buyers, the same trader said.