Change to Fastmarkets’ base metals arbitrage calculation on August 25

The arbitrage calculator is published every day in line with the LME’s working calendar. For each day component parts are gathered as follows, as per our methodology:

1) Fastmarkets’ cif or in-warehouse premiums for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel.

2) Close prices for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel on the LME’s three-month select at 3pm Shanghai time.

3) Close prices for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange front-month at 3pm Shanghai time.

4) Forex rate from the website of the People’s Bank of China at or around 3pm Shanghai time.

5) Spot premium/discount for each metal (copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel) from one local metals website in China; Fastmarkets uses the average value for each in the final calculation.

For Thursday’s publication, no price data was available for 3pm Shanghai time/8am London time for base metals prices, so the earliest price available (8:59 London time) was used in the calculation.

The affected prices:

MB-CU-0362 Copper import arbitrage, yuan/tonne
MB-CU-0361 Copper import arbitrage, $/tonne
MB-AL-0290 Aluminium import arbitrage, yuan/tonne
MB-AL-0289 Aluminium import arbitrage, $/tonne
MB-NI-0107 Nickel import arbitrage, yuan/tonne
MB-NI-0106 Nickel import arbitrage, $/tonne
MB-ZN-0084 Zinc import arbitrage, yuan/tonne
MB-ZN-0083 Zinc import arbitrage, $/tonne

For more information or to provide feedback on the delayed publication of these prices, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter, please contact Sally Zhang by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading ‘FAO: Sally Zhang re base metals arbitrage.’

To see all Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.