11/11/2025
RUSSIA BIGGEST COUNTRY OF ORIGIN FOR LME BASE METALS: OVERTAKES INDIA
Russia was the largest country of origin in terms of base metal tonnages in London Metal Exchange warehouses at the end of October, with China ranking second and India dropping to third place from first during the month to October 31, according to the LME's country of origin stock data for October.
The altered composition of countries of origin in LME warehouses resulted from outflows of Indian lead and fresh inflows of Chinese copper and nickel, and Russian aluminium into LME warehouses.
LEAD stocks in the exchange’s warehouses halved during the month, dropping to 101,950 tonnes from 206,650 tonnes on September 30.
Inflows from India plunged by more than 50% to 55,900 tonnes in October. Inflows from Taiwan also declined, falling to 6,400 tonnes in October from 16,300 tonnes the previous month, while stocks from the UK more than halved to 6,675 tonnes from 15,500 tonnes. Inflows from France and Germany also decreased.
The total volume of open-tonnage PRIMARY ALUMINIUM on the LME system increased by 22.8% to 506,950 tonnes in October, from 412,675 tonnes in September.
The make-up of dominant origins remained largely unchanged month on month, with India-origin primary aluminium accounting for 202,350 tonnes, or 39.9% of total stocks, while Russia-origin metal accounted for 256,025 tonnes, or 50.50%, remaining as the top-origin for the second month in a row.
Combined, Russian and Indian metal accounted for 90% of primary aluminium stocks in LME-registered warehouses, down from 98.98% in September.
The other origins included Australia (16,825 tonnes), Austria (2,700 tonnes), Indonesia (11,575 tonnes), Oman (8,450 tonnes) and Qatar (9,025 tonnes).
Chinese NICKEL stocks in LME warehouses increased month on month at the end of October, bringing total LME nickel stocks to 246,342 tonnes, up from 224,700 tonnes a month earlier, in line with the general trend since early 2024.
Chinese stocks were at 173,082 tonnes at the end of October, up from 152,454 tonnes at the end of September.
Russian stocks were stable at 28,092 tonnes, while tonnages from the world’s largest nickel producer, Indonesia, increased to 11,268 tonnes from 10,746 tonnes.
Australia-origin tonnages slipped to 20,934 tonnes from 21,312 tonnes. Other well-represented refined nickel origins at October-end were South Africa at 2,766 tonnes, Madagascar at 2,136 tonnes, Finland at 3,816 tonnes and Canada at 3,174 tonnes.
COPPER stocks declined to 122,475 tonnes at the end of October, from 133,675 tonnes on September 30.
Both China-origin and Russia-origin copper cathode stocks decreased. Chinese cathode stocks were 100,400 tonnes, down from 109,350 tonnes at the end of September.
Russian cathode stocks were 16,700 tonnes at October-end, down from 18,125 tonnes a month earlier.
Russian and Chinese material accounted for 87.6% of all copper cathode, a significant drop from 95.36% at the end of September.
Minor volumes of cathode in LME warehouses came from Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Zambia. Among these, Japanese cathode stocks recorded the largest month-on-month increase, rising to 825 tonnes from 425 tonnes at September-end.
Stocks of refined ZINC declined further to 29,600 tonnes in October, from 30,625 tonnes in September.
Inflows from India declined to 17,375 tonnes during the month, from 19,425 tonnes in September. India-origin zinc continues to dominate inflows into the exchange.
TIN stocks rose to 2,750 tonnes in the month to October 31, compared with 2,260 tonnes in September, with the bulk of the inflows coming from Malaysia.