Talking about lead?

[randyrat]

I was checking prices and see "30 day,60 day,1 year,5 year- Lead LME lead warehouse inventory levels" What is this? Is it warehouse inventory levels in Tons by companies that handle lead reported to who? Anybody care to elaborate.
LME=?

[oneokie]

London Metals Exchange

[TomT]

I believe this is the official holdings stored in certified warehouses for metals traded on the commodity futures markets. In this case, the London market. These metals have been assayed and certified by registered warehouses as to their purity and weight. They can be withdrawn by the owner for industrial use, or to satisfy the seller's end of a contract.

The number of open contracts for any given month for each commodity will almost always represent a far larger amount of that commodity than what is really available in inventory for delivery. The vast number of long and short contracts are settled by closing out the trade on paper before the contract month expires. It is expensive to have a commodity enter the inventory system and have it stored. Inventory levels of non-seasonal commodities, like Pb, rise as the price of the commodity rises because large trading houses believe it is worth the expense of warehousing to be able to offer the commodity to buyers in future months. The reverse is true of when the prices fall as we saw over the last several months.

The warehouses must report inventory levels to the exchange that commodity is traded on. After the exchange has let all the insiders know everything, you and I get to know what is old news. Just watching the spot price (http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical.html)of lead tells us just about as much. The price of lead has had a heck of a bounce over the last couple of weeks..... Worth thinking about laying in a large supply.

[randyrat]

Thanks, that clears it up a lot.....I figured most is old news when it comes to us.
I also noticed a jump.
How long lived is the big question. How about buying a few million pounds to store.
I sure wouldn't want to be buying a few million pounds and watch it drop even a few pennies,storage would cost a fortune.

[357maximum]

Thanks, that clears it up a lot.....I figured most is old news when it comes to us.
I also noticed a jump.
How long lived is the big question. How about buying a few million pounds to store.
I sure wouldn't want to be buying a few million pounds and watch it drop even a few pennies,storage would cost a fortune.

:bigsmyl2: I am sure the list of members/volunteers to store it for you would eat a million pounds rather quickly....withdrawing it from storage might be difficult though. :bigsmyl2: