London Bourse Extends Contracts Including Aluminum

By Jae Hur and Stuart Wallace

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The London Metal Exchange, the world's largest marketplace for copper, lengthened the maturity of some futures contracts to as much as 10 years.

High-grade aluminum and copper contracts were extended to 123 months, from 63, and zinc and nickel to 63 months from 27, the bourse said in an e-mailed statement today. Lead was extended to 63 months, from 15. The changes take place Sept. 29.

``There has been some growing demand from investment banks and metal companies for longer prompt dates as a mine development project normally takes 4-5 years to complete and they need a benchmark forward price for financing and other purposes,'' said Nicholas Chung, senior manager of the commodity derivatives team at Korea Development Bank in Seoul.

The exchange handled a record $9.5 trillion of futures and options in 2007, a third consecutive year of higher volumes. The LME is facing increased competition as other commodity bourses including the New York Mercantile Exchange plan to increase the number of metals they handle.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Singapore at jhur1@bloomberg.netStuart Wallace at swallace6@bloombe