London Metal Exchange

The LME traces its roots to the Royal Exchange in London in 1571 and was formally established in 1877, trading copper and tin.⁠[1]

In 1877 the London Metal Market and Exchange Company opened its first official premises above a hat shop in Lombard Court.⁠[2]

In 2001 the LME launched LME Select, an electronic trading platform developed by the Swedish software company Cinnober, and in 2010 it opened its first office outside London, in Singapore. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing acquired the LME in 2012 for £1.4 billion.⁠[2]

By 2016 the LME offered three trading venues—the Ring, inter-office trading and LME Select—and had approved more than 650 warehouses in 14 countries. In April 2016 it launched LMEshield, an electronic service for off-warrant warehouse receipts.⁠[1]

Early on March 8, 2022, LME three-month nickel futures rose above $100,000, more than double the previous close, and the LME suspended its nickel market for eight days.⁠[3]

The LME and LME Clear cancelled three-month nickel futures trades during the crisis, and Elliott Associates and Jane Street, affected by the cancellations, sought judicial review. The High Court dismissed the claims in November 2023, finding the LME had acted lawfully, and the Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal ([2024] EWCA Civ 1168) while holding that Elliott’s contingent trades were “possessions” and that the interference was lawful and proportionate.⁠[4]

The LME approved Hong Kong as a warehouse location on January 20, 2025, and then approved the city’s first four LME-licensed warehouse facilities, run by GKE Metal Logistics, Henry Diaper & Co. and PGS (East Asia). Chief executive Matthew Chamberlain said Hong Kong was well positioned to develop further as a key metals hub serving the region.⁠[5]

On March 20, 2025, the UK’s FCA fined the LME £9.2 million for systems and controls inadequate for severe market stress; the LME accepted the findings.⁠[3]

At the LME Asia Metals Seminar in May 2026, Chamberlain said Hong Kong was working to scale LME-approved storage up to a hundred-thousand-ton level. Approved warehouses in the city had grown from four a year earlier to 15, holding nearly 25,000 tonnes, and the LME was studying how to use Hong Kong’s digital asset market to promote tokenization of physical assets.⁠[6]

In June 2026 LME Clear, the exchange’s clearing house, raised each member’s offshore yuan collateral allowance by 50% and began accepting warrants for metal stored in Hong Kong as collateral.⁠[7]

In September 2026 HKEX disclosed that Elliott had brought a new claim before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal over the 2022 nickel trades, alleging that HKEX and the LME abused a dominant market position by failing to maintain adequate systems against disorderly trading and to manage conflicts of interest. HKEX called the claim “without merit” and said it would contest it vigorously.⁠[8]

On October 5, 2026, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, said the city had 19 LME-approved warehouses with storage of more than 36,000 tons.⁠[9]

Later that month the LME said it was “at the early stages of exploring the tokenisation of off-warrant metal inventories to support financing of business” and would engage with stakeholders. Metal on warrant already has title documents allowing it to be traded or pledged as loan collateral, whereas off-warrant stocks lack a standard financing mechanism.⁠[10]