If “challenging” was the word that many metals market participants used to summarise 2016 at the start of LME Week, they might be ending the week on a slightly more optimistic note.

The base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are for the most part firmer this morning, Tuesday April 25, with copper, aluminium zinc and nickel prices up between 0.2% and 0.4%. Three-month copper prices are up 0.4% at $5,678 per tonne. While lead and tin prices are down 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

The London Metal Exchange needs to boost liquidity by further reducing its trading fees, fight back against over-regulation and ensure its own rules don’t disadvantage market users, particularly in the area of high frequency trading, the co-founder of Red Kite Group said.

In the popular imagination, the 1920s were a period of excitement, advance, growing affluence and short skirts. Here, Trevor Tarring looks at the key features of the decade for metals trading and Metal Bulletin

It’s been nine months since the United States announced Section 232 tariffs, and over six months since a 10% tax was applied to imports of aluminium from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

The long-term outlook for nickel looks bright, but has the market run too far ahead on optimistic expectations? Richard Barrett asks experts on the nickel market for their opinions

Warehouse operators can finally take stock after three tough years – the London Metal Exchange has reached the end of its warehouse reforms.

Close to 2,000 copper and other base metals participants descended on Shanghai for the annual Asia Copper Week from Tuesday November 28 to December 1, an event at which participants traditionally gather to discuss long-term contracts for both copper cathodes and concentrates as well as to exchange views on the market for the year ahead.

Metal Bulletin presents the second chapter of this traders' tale.

For nearly all my working career in the City, I have been closely involved with the London Metal Exchange (LME) and reporting from its open-outcry trading floor, the world-famous ‘Ring’.