Total London Metal Exchange trading volume was 169.6 million lots in 2015, down 4.3% from 2014, parent company Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing said Thursday.
This is equivalent to $11.9 trillion and 3.8 billion mt of material, HKEx added. There were 253 trading days in 2015, the same number as in 2014. The average daily volume for 2015 was 670,189 lots, down 4.3% from 2014.
Year-end LME futures market open interest was at 2.3 million lots, up 2% from 2014, while year-end LME market share of global exchange-traded metals futures was 76.3%, HKEx said, compared with 82% at the end of 2014.
Of the exchange's major metals contracts, only nickel and copper showed a year-on-year increase in volumes.
Nickel turnover was up 6.9% from 2014 at 20,699,745 lots, with copper up 0.5% at 41,048,609 lots.
In contrast, turnover on the primary aluminium contract was down 9.1% at 62,541,050 lots, with zinc down 5.7% at 30,037,039 lots and lead down 0.9% at 12,971,442 lots.
Tin turnover was down a hefty 30.7% at 1,469,389 lots, while the two aluminium alloy contracts also saw volumes drop sharply, with standard alloy off 21.2% from 2014 at 217,503 lots and NASAAC down 29.9% at 546,355 lots.
Of the less-liquid contracts, cobalt turnover was down 28.7% year on year at 8,668 lots, with molybdenum down 6.8% at 356 lots, while turnover on the steel Mediterranean billet contract virtually ground to a halt -- down 98% to just 28 lots from 1,404 lots the previous year.
The LME's two new cash-settled ferrous contracts, steel scrap and steel rebar, traded 39 and 69 lots, respectively, between their launch in late November and the end of the year.
The four new regional aluminium premium futures contracts, also launched in late November, saw no volumes traded as of the year's end, according to figures on the LME's website.
LME lot sizes are as follows: 25 mt - aluminium, copper, lead and zinc; 20 mt - aluminium alloy and NASAAC; 6 mt - nickel and molybdenum; 5 mt - tin; 1 mt - cobalt; and 65 mt - steel billet.
