Ann: Quarterly Activities Report , page-10

Upto a point LME metal stocks have much less meaning than they used to, as they are often used in financing deals and as collateral against loans. In effect, the stock is tied up, and not readily available for sale to actual end-users. The whole dynamics of metal trading has changed hugely this past 5 ywears or so. So out of the 1 million tonnes its not really clear precisely how much is able to be shipped to real users of the metal. Sure there remains a broad correlation between metal prices and stock levels, but its not a close correlation anymore.