In truth, the contract had been on life support for several
years, having hardly set the world alight even when it was
launched with great fanfare in early 2008 – with hard
and soft launches for its two regional variants, Mediterranean
and East Asia. Back then, the timing was wrong. The LME had
passed up a golden chance to introduce steel in 2002, opting
instead for a hotchpotch of plastics futures contracts. LME
brokers and traders spent a lot of time and money researching
and marketing these to no avail – they soon foundered
– so there was...
