Reuters with the story:
The London Metal Exchange (LME) was forced to apply the restraints as a ferocious squeeze rocked the market, with the premium for cash metal spiralling out of control to an unprecedented $1,103.50 per tonne at one stage on Monday as the exchange’s monthly prompt date descended into chaos.
The London copper contract has been sucked into a stocks vacuum after the amount of available metal in the LME’s global warehouse system sank to just 14,150 tonnes last Friday, the lowest since 1974. The rest of the 181,400 tonnes had been canceled in preparation for load-out, meaning it was off the table in terms of the monthly reconciliation of physical positions.
