LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Wait times to get metal out of warehouse firms owned by trade house Glencore and bank Goldman Sachs stretch up to two years, according the London Metal Exchange's (LME) first report detailing backlogs at its global network of depots.
Lengthy logjams at warehouses monitored by the LME, the world's oldest and biggest market for industrial metals, prompted bitter criticism by consumers and sparked a wide-ranging reform programme at the exchange.
The LME's new report, covering the month of April, showed the backlogs were concentrated at four warehouse locations and with three major warehouse operators.
The LME already publishes data on inventory levels by location and metal, but up until now has not published the amount of stock held by individual companies.
A court ruling in March halted a key element of the reforms, but the LME has pressed on with many other aspects, including boosting transparency.
The LME report showed the longest queue was just over two years, or 748 calendar days, for aluminium at Pacorini warehouses in the Dutch port of Vlissingen and the second longest was 683 days at Metro depots in Detroit.
Pacorini Metals is owned by commodity group Glencore Xstrata and Metro International Trade Services is a unit of Goldman Sachs.
The owners of warehouses have profited through rental charges by letting long queues build up for buyers to withdraw metal. Some also keep huge stocks of aluminium tied up, unavailable to manufacturers, in long-term financing deals.
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