On January 20, the delivery of coking coal futures 1401 contract of Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) was successfully completed with the total amount of 360,000 tons, the largest delivery amount since the launching of coking coal futures, among which import coking coal accounts for 87%. The whole delivery process went on smoothly with the participation of various enterprises such as traders, coking enterprises, and steel enterprises.
Altogether 6,000 contracts of 1401 coking coal have been delivered with the total amount of 360,000 tons. The delivered goods are from Qingdao Port, Rizhao Port, Tianjin Port, and Tangshan Port, with the delivery amount of 210,000 tons, 84,000 tons, 60,000 tons, and 6,000 tons respectively. Of all delivered coking coal, 312,000 tons are imported coal from Australia, Mongolia, and Canada, and 48,000 tons are from Shanxi. Among the 26 customers participating in the delivery, the sellers are mainly relatively large coking coal import trade companies, and the buyers are mainly trading enterprises, and some coking and steel enterprises.
Relevant person in charge of the Industrial Product Department of DCE said in the interview that the current delivery of coking coal futures has faced such pressure as large storage amount and pressed time. Under such circumstance, DCE has strictly followed the delivery process and fully communicated with members, quality inspection institutions, and warehouse quality inspection. Meanwhile, it has also provided customers first participating in delivery with training and guidance, thus ensuring the successful operation of the coking coal delivery.
He introduced that coking coal blending is the key controlling issue during the delivery of coking coal. As there is no strictly single coal in spot market, there exists in spot market the coal simply mixed at the coal washery by different production pitheads of the same diggings. Such simply-mixed coal will not affect the normal usage of coking coal and can be identified by vitrinite reflectance. Therefore, in designing the indexes for delivery products, DCE allows qualified simply-mixed coal to participate in delivery. In this delivery, in order to avoid other coking coal blending apart from the simply-mixed coal, DCE has closely cooperated with quality inspection institutions, strictly checked each process, and done well in quality guarantee, thus making the 360,000 tons coking coal meet relevant regulations of coking coal quality standards in terms of ash content, sulfur content, caking index, and the maximum thickness of gelatin layer. No contract-breaking behavior has happened in the delivery, which further shows that DCE’s coking coal contract standard and rule design have conform to the spot market and can fully reflect its actual situation.
He also said that in order to further well do the coking coal futures delivery, DCE will next keep strengthening the training and service for industry customers and intensify enterprises’ understanding of market risk-avoiding and delivery business. DCE has set up special indexes with regard to the characteristics of coking coal delivery and storage and strengthened the check on delivery warehouse. Besides, it will further explore ways to reduce delivery cost and enhance futures the market’s level of serving the spot market.
DCE’s coking coal futures was launched on March 22, 2013 and has operated smoothly for 10 months. Till January 20 (In the 201st trading day since the listing of coking coal futures), altogether 36.0117 million contracts have been made (calculated on a single side) and the total trading volume of RMB 2,434.939 billion has been achieved, with the average daily trading amount, trading volume, and position-holding amount of 179,200 contracts, RMB 12.114 billion, and 142,800 contracts. Since the listing of coking coal futures, industry customers have actively participated in the trading, showing their recognition on coking coal futures.