The owner of the London Metal Exchange aims to target Chinese commodity traders concerned by speculative excesses on the country’s domestic bourses, with plans to establish a physical metals trading platform in mainland China next year.
Charles Li, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which bought the LME in 2012, said its planned exchange in Qianhai would make sure prices remained tied to the underlying economy by underpinning it with an LME-style warehouse system for the physical delivery of metal.
“This is a platform for physical users,” he told the FT Commodities Asia Summit in Singapore. “This is a platform for people who trade commodities. The whole idea is not another financial speculation forum.”