Adds comment by LME, context about LME ring in paragraphs 1-5
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange $(LME.UK)$ has approved the application of a British arm of U.S. broker Clear Street for Category 1 membership, giving it access to the LME's open-outcry trading floor, the LME said on Wednesday.
Clear Street joining the LME floor trading takes the number of dealing members on Europe's last open-outcry venue back to eight after Societe Generale SOGN.PA said in August it would leave the floor.
"The arrival of a new member of the calibre of Clear Street demonstrates the LME's ability to provide a dynamic marketplace for industrial metals and our place at the centre of global metals trading," Matthew Chamberlain, LME chief executive, said in a statement.
The LME, the world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, proposed closing the floor or ring trading three years ago, to join other exchanges with only electronic trading, but opposition from the physical market persuaded the LME to row back on its plans.
Ring trading now operates on a hybrid basis. Open-outcry trading is used for determining official prices used by physical users as benchmarks for their contracts and an electronic system for closing prices.
(Reporting by Polina DevittEditing by David Goodman and Louise Heavens)
((polina.devitt@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: polina.devitt.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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