LME reports active Q2

The London Metal Exchange (LME) reports that its average daily volume (ADV) for futures and options trading reached more than 733,600 lots in the second quarter of 2025—the highest quarterly ADV recorded since the second quarter of 2014.

April was a record month for the LME, with ADV reaching nearly 835,000 lots, surpassing the previous record of about 831,700 lots seen in April 2018.

The exchange credits an ongoing rebound in nickel contract trading, which hit a low after unprecedented price volatility in 2022, as being part of the good news.

LME says nickel ADV was up by 22.9 percent year-on-year in this year’s second quarter and contract volumes have been at their highest level in the past five years.

“Having experienced record ADV in April and several of the top trading days we’ve ever seen on LMEselect, we’re pleased that our newly launched trading platform managed these high volume days flawlessly,” says LME CEO Matthew Chamberlain.

“It is particularly encouraging to see LME nickel volumes at their highest level in five years and our physically settled cobalt contract build momentum, with open interest at record levels in June."

In the red metals sector this year, finished metals and recycled materials traders are facing decisions regarding their trading platform in the face of often sizable copper price divergence on the United States-based COMEX platform compared with pricing on the LME and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) platforms.

“While metals markets have been buffeted by external events, the value that we bring to our members and clients managing these risks is represented in the volumes we have witnessed on the market,” Chamberlain says.

In addition to nickel, the other metal contract that boosted the LME’s second-quarter trading activity was tin. For that metal, year-on-year ADV grew by more than 13 percent, rising from about 6,400 lots in the second quarter of 2024 to about 7,250 lots this spring.

LME trading tied to several other contracts declined slightly this spring compared with last year, with copper contract trading falling by 4.9 percent, lead dropping by 2 percent and zinc receding by 1.6 percent. Aluminum trading—tied to the contract with the largest overall volume—essentially stayed flat, dropping by 0.1 percent.