China Launches Stainless Steel Futures Contract On Shanghai Exchange

Shanghai Futures exchange has just started trading Yuan-denominated stainless steel futures, the first of its kind in the world.

The listed futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are eight contracts to be delivered from February to September of 2020 having benchmark prices set at 15,585 yuan ($2,203.6) a ton, Chinese news agency Xinhua has reported.

On the first day of trading, the futures settled a trading volume of 195,240 lots with a turnover of about 15.2 billion yuan (about $2.15 billion).

The most active ss2002 contract for February 2020 delivery edged down 10 yuan to close at 15,575 yuan per ton in daytime trading, it said.

“The launch of the stainless steel futures helps provide an open, continuous and transparent price signal and an effective risk management tool for companies in the industrial chain,” said Jiang Yan, chairman of the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

It also will help enhance the price-setting power of the country, the world’s largest stainless steel producer and consumer, in the global stainless steel market, said Jiang.

China witnessed a rapid growing stainless steel industry, with its production reaching 26.7 million tons in 2018, accounting for over half of the global output. The country became a net stainless steel exporter in 2010, reversing from the world’s largest importer.