Commodities
Lithium Trading Hits Record on CME as Funds Seize Budding Market
- Open interest of CME contract set new high in first quarter
- Lithium contract trading volume is close to topping 2023
CME Group headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
Photographer: Christopher Dilts/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Trading of CME Group Inc.’s nearly three-year-old lithium hydroxide futures contract is soaring, with more funds crowding into the budding market as prices of the battery metal falter.
The number of outstanding contracts hit a record high of 24,328 in the first quarter, and open interest extends to September 2025 — an indication of more liquidity for the nascent contract, according to the US bourse. The number of futures changing hands in the quarter was close to the trading volume for all of last year. CME, one of the world’s largest commodity exchanges, introduced its contract for lithium hydroxide — a chemical form of the battery metal — in May 2021.