Trading in Metals Contracts on London Metal Exchange Halted — Update
By Giulia Petroni
Trading in all contracts on the London Metal Exchange was halted Monday afternoon, preventing traders from placing or matching electronic orders in metals ranging from copper to aluminum.
"We are aware of an issue and working to resolve it as soon as possible," a spokesperson for the exchange said. The disruption affected trading on the exchange's electronic platform, LMEselect.
Contracts stopped trading shortly after 1440 GMT, according to trading data from LSEG. Before the outage, prices were broadly mixed, with three-month copper up 0.9% and aluminum down 1.3%.
With the 1600-1700 GMT pricing window approaching and traders needing time to reconnect to the backup system and re-enter orders, the LME expects to use a backup emergency method to determine closing prices, the spokesperson said.
The London-based exchange is owned by bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing.
The incident is the latest in a series of exchange disruptions in recent months. In late January, the LME delayed the start of trading because of technical issues, temporarily stifling activity. In late November, CME Group was unable to offer trading in futures tied to U.S. stock indexes, Treasurys and crude oil for more than 10 hours after a data center it relied on overheated.
Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2026 13:10 ET (17:10 GMT)
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