London Metal Exchange Halts All Trading, Impacting Aluminum to Zinc and Other Metal Markets

London Metal Exchange (LME) suspends all contract trading, traders across all markets from aluminum to zinc are unable to place orders and are awaiting further information on the system outage.

A spokesperson for the exchange stated via email that they are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. Trading data shows the suspension took effect at 2:44 PM local time; the LME website updates indicate that its electronic trading platform is experiencing a malfunction, while other systems are operating normally.

As of 4:00 PM local time, the market remains paused, which is typically when the daily electronic trading window used to determine closing prices begins. In another statement, the spokesperson said that the LME plans to resume services after the closing prices are set.

This system outage occurred during a period of increased volatility in the metals market. The conflict in Iran has disrupted supplies of industrial metals like aluminum and zinc and cast a shadow over long-term demand prospects. Before the suspension, price movements were mixed: copper rose 0.6%, aluminum fell 1.3%.

In recent months, the metals market has experienced multiple system failures: on January 30, the LME opened with a one-hour delay; the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), a competitor, experienced a ten-hour system outage in November, causing significant volatility in global markets. In January this year, CME’s natural gas market also faced a brief two-minute outage during extreme volatility.

The LME launched a new trading platform in March last year as part of a broad technological upgrade aimed at enhancing electronic trading capabilities. Unlike other exchanges, the LME still conducts many trades via phone and electronic messages, but since the nickel crisis in 2022, it has been actively promoting more trading to shift onto electronic screens.