LME responds to suspension of trading in copper, aluminum and other major contracts: Due to a malfunction in the main electronic matching system.

On March 16th, trading of copper, zinc, aluminum and other contracts on the London Metal Exchange was suspended. The London Metal Exchange responded to Jingjiem News on the 17th, stating that the main electronic matching engine of the exchange experienced a malfunction at 14:43, causing electronic trading to enter a technical pause. During this period, the trading floor remained in normal operation. The London Metal Exchange stated that although all closing prices had been generated according to the usual LME process, the ability of market participants to hedge against related prices was affected by the system failure, therefore declaring an "interruption event" had occurred. The electronic market was then restarted on the backup matching engine after the closing price generation process ended, with trading expected to continue normally until 19:00.