"Everyone is waiting for the bottom to come but nobody knows when," a trader at a European trading house said of copper. On Tuesday, London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper fell to a fresh 11-1/2-year low of $1,507.

Many traders believe further production cuts are needed to stave off price declines and much of US production is unprofitable at current prices.

"The pressure for them to cut output is mounting. I think they may have to do it at some point," said another trader at a Singapore trading firm.

In Singapore, copper inflows stopped over the last few days after huge build-ups last week, but some traders said they were convinced the inflows would resume later as there were no signs demand would improve in regional markets.

Several traders said they did not expect any recovery in the copper market even in thefirst quarter of 1999.

Light demand for aluminium continued from Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"But the quantity is very small and the market is still bad," said one aluminum trader. Demand from major consuming countries such as Japan was still sinking and buying from other Asian countries was unlikely to help the overall market on any scale, the trader said.

In zinc, some routine inflows arrived Singapore from China but not in a big way, traders said. "The international market is so bad that most people here are not doing anything," said one trader.