EXCHANGE NEWS - LME volumes slips 7.8 pct in first half

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Kathleen Retournekathleen.retourne@fastmarkets.comJoint News Editor - Europe+44 (0) 20 7337 2144

London 11/07/2016 - Metal volumes traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for the six base metals slumped 7.8 percent year-on-year to 79,087,440 lots during the first half of 2016, exchange data showed on Monday.

Although June saw the strongest monthly volumes year-to-date at 14,353,938 lots, it was not enough to turn-around a disappointing start to the year.

For the LME to match its 2015 full year volume - itself down 4 percent year-on-year at 169,557,846 lots - it would now need to trade at least 15 million lots per month for the rest of the year.

For the first six months, aluminium saw 28,893,463 lots traded, down eight percent against 31,715,063 in the same period of 2015. Average daily volume (ADV) was also lower at 222,064 lots - down 11 percent.

Additionally, aluminium volumes declined by 16.7 percent compared to the 34,712,981 lots transacted in the first half of 2014. 

Copper volumes were down four percent at 20,366,447 lots compared to 21,394,081 lots in first half 2015. They were also down one percent from the 20,575,868 lots in first half 2014. But, ADV did improve 18.6 percent in the second quarter.

Zinc at 13,268,837 lots was down 11 percent against 2015 and 14 percent on 2014, which were at 14,934,449 lots and 15,543,943 lots respectively. ADV slipped by 13 percent.

Nickel bucked the trend to increase 0.6 percent on 2015 and three percent on 2014 at 10,241,217 lots. Its ADV rose by 1.8 percent.

Lead was down 17 percent on 2015 and 2014 at 5,624,052 lots, while tin at 693,424 lots undershot by 17.8 percent for 2015 and 400 percent from 2014’s 1,122,353 lots.

Meanwhile, it was not just volumes that were lower in the first half. With the exception of zinc, open interest (OI) data for the last trading day of the month was also down. Open interest was at 13,737,401 lots against the corresponding period’s 14,375,910.

But there have been some signs of recent improvement. Total ADV for June was 654,823 contracts, up from previous month’s 608,376. Additionally volume on Select also ticked higher to 215,610 lots - up 20,175 from the prior month.

(Editing by Tom Jennemann)



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