LME fee increase had ‘no impact’ on falling volumes – Garry Jones

Increased London Metal Exchange (LME) trading fees had “no impact on LME trading volumes whatsoever” in the first half of 2015, the bourse’s ceo Garry Jones said on Wednesday August 12.

A 3% decline in average daily traded volumes to 695,588 lots in the first half of 2015 was due to weaker demand for industrial metals and a “general downturn in activity by LME members,” parent company Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing (HKEx) said in its results statement for the period.

Revised LME fees came into place on January 1 2015, hiking the average trading fee by 60%.

HKEx’s profit attributable shareholders increased 73% in the first half of 2015 to HK$4.1 billion ($527.8 million) as a result of HKEx’s LME commercialisation strategy.

Charlotte Radford
charlotte.radford@metalbulletin.com  
Twitter: @CRadford_MB