The London Metal Exchange told Fastmarkets that it is confident there is enough capacity to meet the increasing demand to store metal in its warehouses across the globe.
Demand for physical metal continues to decline following Covid-19 shutdowns in downstream sectors and premiums are falling, forcing
stockholders to take up the option of storing their material in warehouses instead.
Metal stock on the LME totaled 2,052,752 tonnes on Wednesday May 6 up from 1,730,078 tonnes at the beginning of March just before coronavirus lockdowns started to be implemented outside China - an increase of 18.7%.
"People are sitting tight and storing their metal waiting for price levels to increase. Financing is a worry and banks do not want any risk right now, that is why more people need to be storing in LME warehouse on warrant," a warehousing source said.
Data released by the LME shows that was 3,970,254 square meters of warehouse space across all listed locations at the end of March 2020.
The five locations with the largest square meter...