CME Group, which runs a derivatives marketplace, announced Jan. 14 a record year for its international coal futures of 1,298,361 contracts (representing 1.3 billion metric tons) traded in 2013.
This is a 300% increase compared to the volume traded in 2012 which was 329,985 contracts (330 million tonnes).
Volumes have continued to grow in line with demand for coal as the fuel of choice in global energy markets, CME Group said. This international coal volume comes from non-U.S. CME Group coal products as follows: Coal (API2) CIF ARA (ARGUS-McCloskey) Futures; Coal (API4) FOB Richards Bay (ARGUS-McCloskey) Futures; Coal (API 5) fob Newcastle (Argus/McCloskey); Indonesian Coal (McCloskey sub-bituminous); and Coal (API 8) cfr South China (Argus/McCloskey) Futures.
The highest number of coal contracts traded on a single day in 2013 was 13,935 contracts on Sept. 3. The monthly record was in October with 171,988 contracts traded. Annual Open Interest for international coal at the end of December 2013 was 118,448 contracts compared to 47,215 contracts at the end of December 2012.
In June, CME Group launched the Coal (API 5) fob Newcastle (Argus/McCloskey) deliverable in Western Australia to add to the Asian Indonesian Coal (McCloskey sub-bituminous), and Coal (API 8) cfr South China (Argus/McCloskey) Futures contracts. A total of 17,595 contracts were traded in 2013 across these three Asian contracts as new players entered the market.
The total volume for U.S. coal futures for 2013 was 269,688 compared to 229,919 contracts in 2012.
