Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) aims to have pilot contracts using prices from the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) this year, its chief executive told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting.
My aim would be to have the pilot contracts out this year, or, at the very least, a clear roadmap of which contracts and their specifications,” LME CEO Matthew Chamberlain told the Reuters Global Markets Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Reuters exclusively reported last month that the LME was planning new metals contracts using ShFE prices.
The specific contacts to be launched with ShFE were still under discussion, but the steel complex would have the most potential as it was a very-growth area, Chamberlain added.
“Steel is a very high-growth area for us, our Turkey steel scrap volumes are up 88% year-on-year,” he said.
On the issue of Russian metals in warehouses, Chamberlain said that he saw it exiting, as well as coming in.
“That backs up the anecdotal messages from the market, namely that much of the world is still consuming Russian metal.”
The share of available aluminum stocks of Russian origin in LME warehouses rose to 90.4% in December, from 78.8% in November, data on the exchange’s website showed.
(By Divya Chowdhury, Savio Shetty and Eric Onstad; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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