With the global economy showing sustained synchronous growth for the first time in well over a decade, sentiment in commodities markets is on the turn. Prices have risen rapidly over the past three years, with everything from oil and coal to non-ferrous metals benefiting from a shift in fundamentals.

While global supplies are currently keeping pace, strong demand growth is beginning to expose the cost of a half-decade of severe under-investment across the commodities complex. As we embark on this new price and investment cycle, it is worth asking what type it will be. 

It will not be another "supercycle” like that of the first decade of this millennium when massive increases in Chinese demand for materials combined with loose monetary conditions to send prices for major commodities up to fivefold higher.