Trading was halted on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday afternoon due to a technical outage, during a period when the Iran war has triggered unusually high volatility for commodity prices.
All electronic contracts on the exchange — which include copper, aluminium, nickel and other metals — stopped trading at about 2.44pm local time, according to data from LSEG.
“The electronic market is currently in a technical halt, and the LME intends to restore trading on the secondary instance,” the exchange said in a statement without giving a timeframe for when normal trading would resume.
The exchange would calculate Tuesday’s “closing prices” based on its backup “waterfall” approach, the statement added.
“The electronic market will then be restored after the closing prices window,” it said. The closing prices window normally ends at 5pm each day and electronic trading normally closes at 7pm.
The LME, founded in 1877 and owned by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, is the world’s largest market for physical metals trading and sets the benchmark price for many base metals.
The exchange reported a brief outage on January 30, which caused it to delay the start of trading by one hour. Rival CME separately experienced a 10-hour outage last November.
Global supply chains for metals have been roiled by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war. The price of aluminium is up 13 per cent this year, largely due to smelter closures in the Middle East.
