SINGAPORE — The London Metal Exchange’s revenue rose 28 percent year on year in 2012 to Hong Kong $976 million ($125.8 million), boosted by a new trading fee introduced July 2, the LME’s owner, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEx), reported Feb. 27.

The LME’s trading volumes last year stood at 159.7 million lots compared with 146.6 million lots in 2011.

HKEx took over the LME in December 2012 in a $2.2-billion deal that ended 135 years of independence for the market (amm.com, Dec. 6).

"Building on the deep liquid markets of the LME, we will expand the existing business by lowering barriers for Asian—and particularly Mainland (Chinese)—investors to access the LME market," HKEx said. "Key initiatives include facilitating easier cross-border access, developing Asian time zone trading and clearing, offering (yuan) clearing services and extending the LME’s warehouse network into the mainland of China."

The LME will also continue to review the warehousing system, HKEx said.

"(The) LME will keep the operation of the warehousing system under constant review and will continue to tune the system when such tuning is both necessary and effective," it added.

HKEx’s net income for 2012 fell 20 percent to HK$4.1 billion ($528.6 million), hurt by higher costs, lower annual turnover and a decline in new listings and fundraising.