• Tuesday, 27th April 2010 saw 1,514 lots traded – previous high was 1,288 lots
• Market Open Interest up 155% since start of year to 2,906 lots from 1,138 lots

Trading in steel futures on the London Metal Exchange reached a new record yesterday, with 1,514 lots of the Exchange’s Mediterranean contract traded, equivalent to 98,410 tonnes and with a value of $47.5 million.

This was 17.5% higher than the previous record of 1,288 lots registered on 19th March and in the last two months and a half months the LME has seen the top 10 most traded dates since the launch of the Mediterranean steel contract in 2008.

Top 10 most traded days since launch (all FM - Mediterranean)

Date	Total
27 April 2010	1514
19 March 2010	1288
26 April 2010	1209
18 March 2010	1203
20 April 2010	1020
23 April 2010	951
23 February 2010	922
12 March 2010	899
21 April 2010	791
15 March 2010	689

Since March, when the LME announced it planned to add delivery locations outside Europe to the Mediterranean contract from 28th July, interest in the Exchange’s steel hedging, pricing and delivery services has surged. Market Open Interest (MOI) has increased 155% since the start of the year to 2,906 lots on Monday, 26th April from 1,138 lots on 31st December, 2009.

Chris Evans, Head of Business Development at the LME, said, “We continue to be encouraged by the performance of the steel business. We’re seeing real depth in trading activity as more and more market participants adopt LME steel as their favoured tool for risk management and benchmark pricing.”

~Ends~

For further information or to speak to an LME spokesman, please contact:

Stephen White
Business Manager Corporate Affairs
t. +44 (0)20 7264 1701 / +44 (0)7980 661 724
e. stephen.white@lme.com

John Parry - RostronParry
t. +44 (0)207 490 8062 / +44 (0)7802 292251
e. john@rostronparry.com

About the London Metal Exchange

The London Metal Exchange is the world's premier base metals market. It offers metals price risk management tools including futures and options contracts for aluminium, copper, tin, nickel, zinc, lead, aluminium alloy and NASAAC, steel billet, plastics and the minor metals - cobalt and molybdenum. In 2009, the total value of trading was $7.41trillion, and the Exchange finished the year with 5.96m tonnes of material on warrant in 633 storage facilities across 39 locations globally.
http://www.lme.com/