London 10/10/2016 - Average daily volume (ADV) across the suite of London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts fell 11.4 percent year-on-year in September to 571,295 lots, it said.
Total monthly volume across the complex at 13,440,972 lots was up on the August total of 12,135,222 lots. But total volume for the third quarter was down 12 percent on the corresponding quarter of 2015.
Open interest across the six base metals at 2,260,892 contracts last month was up from 2,233,663 contracts in August.
Aluminium's ADV in September at 189,429 lots was down 17.3 percent year-on-year. Total volumes, however, were back above 4 million tonnes at 4,167,447 lots.
Copper's ADV dropped 13.1 percent year-on-year to 139,079 lots although it was up 1.8 percent month-on-month at 3,059,736 lots.
Nickel's ADV fell 17.1 percent year-on-year to 71,074 lots, with total volume in September some 1,563,618 lots.
Lead's ADV at 45,152 lots was down 5.6 percent year-on-year.
Zinc was the star performer in September - its ADV by 4.3 percent year-on-year - while tin's ADV was also 1.6 percent higher in the same comparison.
The decline in ADV came despite the exchange lower fees for the short-dated carry dates from September 1.
Still, the LME acknowledged that this change was "no silver bullet" and said that a downturn in the physical market, a weak economic climate, volatility and fund allocation also played a part in falling business levels.
But traders had hoped for a wider range of cuts rather than solely in the short-dated carries, they said.
"The fee cut was a tiny proportion of trades and does not help customers... lower fees [more widely] would be oxygen to the market," a category one member said.
With business levels of other exchanges increasing this year, several members countered that a downturn in the economy could not be the sole reason for the decline in LME volumes.
Open interest in CME's aluminium contract suite hit a record on September 30, it said late last month. At 44,335 lots, it was up 230 percent from 19,290 lots as of the end of the third quarter of 2015.
For copper, its year-to-date ADV in high grade was 80,000 lots, up 17 percent from 68,000 lots a year previously.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)