The London Metal Exchange has been handed an unexpected advantage over its New York rival by Donald Trump’s erratic trade policy.
The US president’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imports of copper have triggered wild price swings on New York’s Comex exchange and continue to skew prices for future deliveries, analysts say, because contracts there include any duties or other taxes payable in the US.
In contrast, the LME, the world’s biggest base metals exchange, deals in copper stored worldwide in bonded warehouses before taxes become due, to deliver what chief executive Matthew Chamberlain described as a “clean, global price” exempt from tariff volatility.