London Metal Exchange Resumes Trading; Copper, Aluminum and All Contracts Suspended for Over Two Hours

MaticHoleFiller · 2026-03-16T22:12:32+00:00

The London Metal Exchange (LME) experienced a suspension of electronic trading for more than two hours on Monday due to a major malfunction in its primary electronic matching engine. The outage occurred during a critical trading session, affecting liquidity in the metals market. While electronic trading was halted, floor trading continued normally, and the exchange planned to restore trading through backup servers.

MaticHoleFiller

2026-03-16 22:12:32

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London Metal Exchange (LME) electronic trading was paused for over two hours on Monday across all contracts. Metal traders from aluminum to zinc were unable to place orders and had to wait for further information about the cause of the outage.

The outage occurred at a critical time in the metals market. The third Wednesday of the month—when LME contract liquidity is at its peak—was approaching, and tensions related to the Iran conflict were causing sharp fluctuations in commodity prices. After trading resumed, an exchange spokesperson said the issue was caused by a failure in LME’s main electronic matching engine.

Trading was halted at 2:44 PM local time and resumed at 5:30 PM. During the suspension, the spokesperson stated, “We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible, but we could not fix the pricing disruption event before the close.” LME’s closing prices are typically set between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM London time.

The spokesperson explained that the electronic market was in a “technical halt,” but “inter-office trading” continued normally, meaning brokers could still trade via phone or electronic messaging systems.

He also added that LME plans to restore electronic trading after the closing price setting window ends, using backup servers. During this period, the closing prices will be calculated based on the exchange’s “backup cascading pricing mechanism.”

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