Weight and Price Units in the Metals Trade
A general unit converter will turn pounds into kilograms. It will not tell you that the American buyer quoting you "per ton" means 907 kg, or that getting from cents per pound to yuan per tonne needs the exchange rate in the same step. That is what this page is for.
Weight units
These factors are exact by definition, not measured — one pound is defined as 0.45359237 kg. That is why the decimals here go further than anything else on this site.
| Unit | Symbol | = kg | per tonne |
|---|---|---|---|
Metric tonne Default in China, on the LME and in most international contracts | t / MT | 1,000 | 1.0000 |
Kilogram | kg | 1 | 1,000.0000 |
Short ton What "ton" usually means in the US scrap market — 9.3% lighter than a tonne | ST | 907.18474 | 1.1023 |
Long ton Imperial gross ton; still in older contracts and some ore trades | LT | 1,016.0469088 | 0.9842 |
Pound The pricing unit for COMEX copper and US scrap quotes | lb | 0.45359237 | 2,204.6226 |
Troy ounce Precious metals only — about 10% heavier than an avoirdupois ounce | ozt | 0.031103477 | 32,150.7466 |
Avoirdupois ounce The everyday ounce. In a precious-metal quote it is almost always an error | oz | 0.028349523 | 35,273.9619 |
Gram | g | 0.001 | 1,000,000.0000 |
Chinese jin Still used in small domestic scrap deals; 1 jin = 500 g | 斤 | 0.5 | 2,000.0000 |
One tonne is 2,204.6226 lb. A short ton is 9.3% lighter than a tonne — on a contract that says only "ton", that difference is larger than most negotiated price gaps.
Which venue quotes in what
US dollars per metric tonne, for both cash and 3-month
Yuan per tonne, VAT-inclusive — not the same basis as the LME
US cents per pound; a copper quote of 520 means $5.20/lb
US dollars per troy ounce, for gold, silver, platinum and palladium
The two conversions that matter
Weight and currency in one step. Doing them separately is where the errors come from.
Turns an LME quote into the COMEX basis, so the two can actually be compared.
Today, in all three units
Trade date 2026-08-28 · USD/CNY 6.7358. The same metal, the same day, written the way each market writes it.
| Metal | Domestic ¥/t | Domestic $/lb | LME $/t | LME ¢/lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CopperCu | 108,620 | 7.3145 | 14,736 | 668.40 |
| AluminumAl | 23,930 | 1.6115 | — | — |
| LeadPb | 16,240 | 1.0936 | — | — |
| ZincZn | 26,275 | 1.7694 | — | — |
| TinSn | 422,000 | 28.4177 | — | — |
| NickelNi | 128,200 | 8.6331 | — | — |
The domestic column is VAT-inclusive and the LME column is not, so the two are not directly comparable even after the units line up — that comparison needs the landed-cost calculation, not just arithmetic on units. A dash means we hold no independent LME quote for that metal; we leave it blank rather than back it out of the domestic price.
Three ways this goes wrong
"Ton" with no qualifier. In a US domestic scrap contract it is almost always the short ton; in anything international it is the tonne. Write MT or ST on the contract and the argument never happens.
Ounces. A troy ounce is 9.7% heavier than the ordinary ounce. Precious metals are always troy; if a quote says plain "oz", ask, because assuming costs you that percentage.
Converting in two steps. Pounds to tonnes today, dollars to yuan tomorrow at a different rate — the two halves end up on different days. Convert weight and currency in the same expression, with the rate written next to it.