Finance
LME electronic trading hit by technical halt
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 16, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 16, 2026
Quick Summary
On March 16, 2026, the London Metal Exchange’s electronic trading platform LME Select experienced a technical halt around 15:00 GMT, halting price updates for key metals. Trading continued via inter-office channels, and the exchange will apply its backup pricing methodology to calculate closing pric
LME electronic trading hit by technical halt
London Metal Exchange Faces Technical Disruption
March 16 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange said on Monday its electronic market LME Select had been hit by a technical halt and that trading was unavailable as it worked to resolve the problem.
Impact on Metal Contract Pricing
Prices for the LME's metal contracts, including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc, nickel and tin stopped updating on LSEG's Workspace platform around 3 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Monday.
Restoration Efforts by the LME
The LME, the world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, said it was working to restore trading in the secondary instance, adding that inter-office trading continued to be available as normal.
Backup Pricing Procedures
Given the proximity of the 1600 to 1700 GMT pricing window, the LME expects to apply its backup pricing waterfall approach to produce closing prices, which would result in a pricing disruption event, the exchange said in a statement.
"The electronic market will then be restored after the closing prices window," it added.
Previous Technical Issues
On January 30, the LME delayed the start of electronic trading by one hour due to a "technical issue."
LME Select usually operates from 1 a.m. to 7 p.m. London time, according to the exchange's website.
(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Tomasz Janowski)
Key Takeaways
- •LME Select platform suffered a technical outage, suspending electronic updates for copper, aluminium, lead, zinc, nickel and tin prices around 15:00 GMT on March 16 2026 (investing.com).
- •Inter-office (phone-based) trading remained operational while LME worked to restore the electronic market and prepare fallback pricing via its backup waterfall approach for the 16:00–17:00 GMT closing window (prismnews.com).
- •This incident is part of a pattern of LME platform disruptions in 2026—including a prior one-hour delay and a five-hour outage—underscoring structural vulnerabilities in its electronic infrastructure (investing.com)
References
Frequently Asked Questions about LME electronic trading hit by technical halt
1What caused the trading halt on the London Metal Exchange?
The LME’s electronic trading platform, LME Select, was hit by a technical issue, resulting in a temporary trading halt.
2Which metal contracts were affected by the LME outage?
Prices for contracts including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc, nickel and tin were impacted.
3How did the LME plan to manage closing prices during the outage?
The LME used a backup pricing waterfall approach to determine closing prices, leading to a pricing disruption event.
4Was any form of trading still available during the LME electronic halt?
Yes, inter-office trading continued as normal despite the outage on the electronic platform.
5When did LME Select experience the technical halt?
The halt occurred around 1500 GMT on March 16, with prices stopping updates on LSEG’s Workspace.
