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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 (9:44 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.