Traders Are Already Gaming the New Russian Metal Sanctions
- Aluminum traders move to withdraw old Russian metal from LME
- Move is a bet that sanctions will make the metal tough to sell
Aluminum rolls in a storage area at the Sayanal foil mill in Sayanogorsk, Russia.
Source: Bloomberg
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It took less than a day after the UK and US banned future sales of Russian aluminum, copper and nickel on the London Metal Exchange before traders had zeroed in on a way to make money off the convoluted new rules.
The opportunity lies in massive piles of Russian metal already sitting in the exchange’s global warehouse network. And the LME might not like what they’ve got planned.