Press Release
Record Month for ICE Coal Futures -- Over 100Mt cleared in January
LONDON AND SINGAPORE – 1 February 2010
The ICE Coal Futures portfolio experienced all-time record volumes in the month of January, with 108,730 lots (equivalent to over 108 million tonnes of coal) cleared via ICE Clear Europe®. The month’s volumes eclipsed the previous record of 89,040 lots established in June 2009 by over 22%.
The gC ICE Newcastle contract performed particularly well, surpassing for the first time the 10Mt mark with 11,135 lots traded. The record volume represents 3 times the volume traded in December 2009, and a 66% increase on the previous record of 6,710 lots established in November 2009.
The ICE Rotterdam and Richards Bay Coal Futures contracts also traded in record volumes, with 65,790 and 31,805 lots cleared respectively.
Open interest across the portfolio continued to climb, closing the month above 111Mt.
Eoghan Cunningham, CEO of globalCOAL, said: “The increased volatility in coal prices witnessed across January has without a doubt emphasised the traders’ need to hedge and ICE Coal Futures remain the most effective way to manage price risk both for existing players and the new entrants to the coal market. These early results bode well for continued growth in the liquidity of the ICE Coal Futures contracts.”
ICE Futures Europe’s coal Futures offering currently consists of three financially-settled Futures contracts for Rotterdam, Richards Bay and Newcastle – the only actively traded international coal Futures contract worldwide.
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