Singapore SGX’s clears 14.9 mil mt coking coal derivatives in 2017

8 January 2018

The Singapore Exchange cleared 14.9 million mt of coking coal swaps and options contracts in 2017, up 2,818% on the year, according to SGX data released Tuesday.

Of the 14.9 million mt cleared last year, 14.8 million mt were for swaps and 110,000 mt for options. Open interest totaled 13.91 million mt, with 13.47 million mt for swaps and 440,000 mt for options.

On average, 1.24 million mt were traded on a monthly basis, equivalent to two Supramax vessels a day.

For December, traded volume of derivatives fell 78.27% from the previous month to 366,000 mt, but rose 45.24% from 252,000 mt in December 2016.

SGX coking coal swaps and options contracts are settled against TSI’s Australia Premium Hard Coking Coal FOB index, a pricing unit under S&P Global Platts.

Coking coal swaps were launched on SGX in July 2014 due to growing interest in steel raw materials derivatives. This was followed by the coking coal option contracts launched on September 2017 to enhance the suite available to investors.

The world’s first coking coal option contract was traded on SGX on November 10, 2017 by Simpson Spence Young (SSY) Futures Ltd, with option contracts continuing to gain traction after the first trade to the end of the year.

SGX continues to dominate the coking coal derivatives market, averaging 92.30% of market share in 2017.

Source: PLATTS