Steel trading volumes started to pick up in March after running flat for almost two years and since then they have settled an all-time high every month. Volumes are, nonetheless, well below other metals contracts. Tin, the smallest market at the LME, traded about 760,000 lots in the first half of the year and the largest contracts, copper and aluminium, traded 14.7m and 22.5m lots respectively.
The LME, the world’s largest base metals derivatives market, said total trading volumes for all metals in the first half of the year hit an all time high of 59.3m lots, up 7.5 per cent from the same period of 2009. Lead, nickel and copper made the biggest year on year increases. Aluminium posted a small drop.
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In Shanghai, By the way, quite .