LME Aluminium

LME Aluminium (or LME Aluminum in American and Canadian English) stands for a group of spot, forward, and futures contracts, trading on the London Metal Exchange (LME), for delivery of primary Aluminium that can be used for price hedging, physical delivery of sales or purchases, investment, and speculation.[1] Producers, semi-fabricators, consumers, recyclers, and merchants can use Aluminium futures contracts to hedge Aluminium price risks and to reference prices.[2] Notable companies that use LME Aluminium contracts to hedge Aluminium prices include General Motors, Boeing, and Alcoa.[3][4][5]

As of late 2019, the system of LME Aluminium contracts is associated with 1.27 to 1.49 million tonnes of physical primary Aluminium stored in 500 to 700 warehouses around the world, out of 2.78 million tonnes of global reported warehoused Aluminium, and 11.78 million tonnes of global reported and unreported warehoused Aluminium.[6][7][8][9] For comparison, world production of primary Aluminium in 2019 is 63.70 million tonnes, which implies that physical Aluminium tied up in the LME warehouse system for LME Aluminium contracts only makes up between 2.0% to 2.3% of world annual production.[10] Despite the low amount of physical Aluminium tied to the LME contracts, they have become an important source of hedging and price discovery.[11]

  1. ^ Novelis Inc. (2014-11-18). "Written Statement of Novelis Inc. to The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on "Wall Street Bank Involvement With Physical Commodities"" (PDF). U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  2. ^ Sampson, Raymond (2014-11-18). "Understanding the LME". Recycling Today. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  3. ^ "ALUMINIUM: The consumer view on long-term hedging". Fast Market Metal Bulletin. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  4. ^ "The Boeing Company 2019 Annual Report" (PDF). Alcoa. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  5. ^ "Alcoa 2019 Annual Report" (PDF). Alcoa. Retrieved 2020-05-13.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ Treadgold, Tim (2019-12-03). "Aluminium Surplus Worsens, Signaling A Price Fall And Plant Closures In The New Year". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-05-13.[dead link]
  7. ^ Home, Andy (2020-01-14). "Column: Another spin of the giant LME aluminium stocks carousel". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  8. ^ "Approved Warehouses". London Metal Exchange. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  9. ^ "How the World Aluminium Market Works". All About Aluminium. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  10. ^ "Primary Aluminium Production". The International Aluminium Institute. 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  11. ^ Figuerola-Ferretti, Isabel; Gilbert, Christopher L. (2005). "Price Discovery in the Aluminium Market". The Journal of Futures Markets. 25 (10). Wiley Periodicals, Inc.: 967–988. doi:10.1002/fut.20173.