STORING A LOOK AT LONDON'S LME WAREHOUSES METALS

摘要

In 1991, the London Metal Exchange signed up its first warehouse in the United States, a facility in Baltimore operated by C. Steinweg Inc. It seemed a tentative step considering that the exchange already had a network of registered warehouses in Europe and a few in the Far East. Indeed, the LME was testing the waters, making that one U.S. warehouse the only game in town for a while. But in the four intervening years, the LME has contracted for 23 more warehouses to handle a variety of nonferrous metals on this side of the Atlantic. (For a list of these facilities, their locations, and the commodities they handle, see "The U.S. Contingent" on page 142.) These facilities are now a distinct part of the exchange's worldwide operations, offering U.S. metal producers and traders the opportunity to participate in physical trading transactions on a local basis. Like the more than 400 LME-registered warehouses located in other parts of the globe, the U.S. warehouses exist as a service to LME members-as designated facilities where they can send or receive metal according to the terms of any forward or spot contracts they exercise. In fact, "the standard LME contract always calls for receipt or delivery of a reported LME brand on the due date from or into an LME-approved warehouse," according to "Wolff's Guide to the LME," something of an industry bible on the subject.