"If our customers want to trade any of these contracts, we'll put something up, but no one has asked yet. It's not an auspicious start," an unidentified metals broker told the news service.

"We've got a customer who potentially would be interested if there was some liquidity, but that could take a long time."

The rebar and scrap contracts, along with one for aluminum premiums, are the first new contracts offered by the exchange in more than five years.

“This has been an extremely customer-focused product launch, and we have collaborated with participants throughout the metals value chain to ensure we have created contracts that people want to trade,” said LME chief exeutive Garry Jones in a statement.

The new scrap and rebar contracts are being traded on the LMEselect electronic trading platform. The contracts are cash-settled against physical Turkish scrap and rebar price indexes.

The exchange is using Platts and The Steel Index to settle and clear the steel contracts.  

"Turkey is traditionally the world's largest importer of scrap steel, a key input in making steel, and the largest exporter of steel rebar used in construction markets worldwide," said Steven Randall, global director of content for Platts metals and The Steel Index.

"As such, these prices are benchmarks closely watched by the global steel industry. The LME's new contracts provide the industry with valuable hedging tools to help manage price risk in these volatile markets."