The London Metal Exchange (LME) is the world centre for industrial metals trading. In 2023, 149 million lots were traded, equating to $15 trillion notional and 3.5 billion tonnes, with a market open interest high of 1.8 million lots.

The metals community uses the LME, an HKEX Group company, as a venue to transfer or take on price risk, as a physical market of last resort and as the provider of transparent global reference prices.