What makes the LME unique?

Of the industry and for the industry, the LME’s physical non-ferrous contracts are designed with the metal community in mind and that is what makes the LME unique. We pride ourselves on the unique settlement-date structure of our non-ferrous contracts and our focus on the physical market.

What types of metals can LME participants trade?

LME participants can trade and take or make delivery of aluminium, copper, tin, nickel, zinc, lead, aluminium alloys and premiums. Non-ferrous prices discovered on our platforms are used as the global reference price.

What is a non-ferrous metal contract (LME)?

Designed to reflect the nature and timing of bilaterally negotiated metal trades, market participants can use the LME’s non-ferrous contracts to transfer or take on risk against metal prices daily out to 3 months, weekly out to 6 months and monthly out to anything up to 123 months – that’s over 10 years in the future.

How much do LME contracts cost?

The contracts prices are quoted in US dollars per tonne. LME prices have minimum tick sizes of $0.50 per tonne (or $12.50 for one contract) for open outcry trading in the LME Ring and electronic trading on LMEselect, while minimum tick sizes are reduced for inter-office telephone trading to $0.01 per tonne (or $0.50 for one contract).