LONDON, September 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the
world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today
announced the launch of trading and clearing services for iron ore
62% Fe, CFR China (Platts) swap futures, reflecting changing
dynamics in the global ferrous industry. Trading will be available
on the New York trading floor.
Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort(R), a set
of flexible clearing services open to over-the-counter (OTC) market
participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and
provide neutral settlement prices across asset classes. Trading and
clearing are scheduled to begin on October
17 for trade date October 18.
This contract will be listed by NYMEX and subject to the rules and
regulations of NYMEX.
"The ferrous metals industry is one of the largest global
commodity markets," said Joe Raia,
CME Group managing director of energy and metals products and
services. "This contract will complement our existing suite of
ferrous, dry freight and international coal futures, and advances
our goal of building a complete marketplace for seaborne dry
freight products, providing risk management tools across the full
ferrous production cycle. In addition, this contract will afford
our customers the benefits of capital efficiencies by cross
margining against other related products."
"We are committed to bringing greater transparency and
efficiency to the global iron ore market through our physical price
assessments and information services, and we welcome the futures
industry's recognition of the role we play in the price discovery
process in the markets we cover," said Gerald Bueshel, Platts
director of global licensing. "This brings the total number of CME
Group contracts settled on market price assessments published by
Platts to more than 400."
Iron ore is a key raw material used in the production of crude
steel. Although abundant and widely extracted, growing global
demand, particularly from China,
has resulted in growing price volatility.
The commodity code for the contract will be PIO. It will be
listed for 24 consecutive months, with November 2010 as the first listed contract month.
The contract will be 1,000 dry metric tons in size, with a minimum
price fluctuation of US$0.01 per
tick.
About Platts
Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is
a leading global provider of energy and metals information. With a
century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more
than 150 countries. An independent provider, Platts serves the oil,
natural gas, electricity, emissions, nuclear power, coal,
petrochemical, shipping, and metals markets from 17 offices
worldwide. Platts' real-time news, pricing, analytical services and
conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency.
Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.
About CME Group
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace,
CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to
manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global
benchmark products across all major asset classes, including
futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes,
foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather
and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together
through its CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform and its
trading facilities in New York and
Chicago. CME Group also operates
CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing
services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement
services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for
over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort(R).
These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can
substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and
over-the-counter derivatives markets.
The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group,
Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago
Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the
Board of Trade of the City of
Chicago. NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are
trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a
trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. Further information about CME
Group (Nasdaq: CME) and its products can be found at
http://www.cmegroup.com.
CME-G