(02/04) LME Business to Benefit From China's ‘Massive’ Expansion

April 02, 2011
London Metal Exchange business will be “good” this year with China the world’s largest buyer of industrial metals, still in expansion, Chief Executive Officer Martin Abbott said.

Average daily trading in LME futures and options climbed 15 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, Abbott said in an interview in London today. Trading last year rose 7.4 percent to a record 120.3 million lots worth $11.6 trillion.
The LME index of six metals jumped 24 percent last year and almost doubled in 2009 as the global economy recovered from its steepest slump since World War II. Aluminum is up 6.9 percent this year, tin rose 18 percent and copper dropped 1.3 percent.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange, which also offers trading in copper, aluminum and other industrial metals, is not considered a “short-term threat,” he said. “They obviously have grown very fast from a low base but we’ve also been growing,” he said.