Business News Agency, September 22

The Shanghai Futures Exchange officially announced the Standard Contract for Asphalt Futures in the Petroleum (Market) Area of the Shanghai Futures Exchange and several relevant rules. The formal contract is basically the same as the previous draft, with only one change in the minimum price from 1 yuan/ton to 2 yuan/ton.

It is understood that the trading unit of asphalt futures to be listed is 10 tons/hand, the limit of rise and fall is ± 3%, and the minimum trading margin (trading point of market stock bar) is 4% of the contract value. The delivery method is physical delivery, and the delivery grade is 70 # A-grade road petroleum asphalt. It is reported that in terms of trading time, asphalt futures will not directly launch "night trading".

The relevant person in charge of the Stock Exchange said that the Exchange had carried out a lot of basic work to strive for the oil asphalt futures trading as soon as possible after obtaining the approval of the application for project establishment of oil asphalt futures from the First Department of Futures Supervision in December 2012. Constantly strengthen communication with relevant national ministries and commissions and state-owned oil companies, and conduct field research on several asphalt production and trade enterprises to comprehensively understand the spot asphalt market. On the basis of empirical research and full demonstration, learn from fuel oil Based on the successful experience of other energy and mature metal futures, and the characteristics of asphalt products, the contract and rules of petroleum asphalt futures have been scientifically designed.

It is worth noting that in the delivery link, asphalt futures are quite bright. The first is the combination of warehouse delivery and factory warehouse delivery. In the opinion of insiders, warehouse delivery facilitates the participation of traders, factory warehouse delivery facilitates the participation of manufacturers, and multiple delivery methods provide multiple options for market participants, which is conducive to reducing delivery costs.

In addition, the registered brand delivery system was introduced. It is reported that the registered products for asphalt delivery currently cover 7 brands of more than 10 production enterprises, including PetroChina, CNOOC, Sinochem, local refineries and imported asphalt. In 2012, the registered production enterprises produced about 10 million tons in total, accounting for 47% of the national asphalt consumption.

The launch of petroleum asphalt futures has been strongly supported by the industry and industry professionals, and the market has a high enthusiasm for petroleum asphalt futures. Some enterprise representatives proposed that futures is a risk management tool for the majority of asphalt enterprises. The main function of futures market is to provide enterprises and institutional investors with tools to avoid risks. Spot enterprises must learn and actively use the futures market to survive in the fierce competition.

Industry experts remind that asphalt enterprises should adhere to the principle of hedging when participating in the futures market, and keep in mind that the purpose of participating in futures trading is to ensure the stability of production and operation and improve the controllability of sales and profits, rather than profiting from speculative trading. In addition, we should be familiar with the rules of petroleum asphalt futures trading, strengthen the construction of various management systems for hedging, strictly implement the risk control system, improve and perfect the internal control and other supervision mechanisms. Only in this way can we make full use of the futures market to serve the development of enterprises.

　　。

(Source: Securities Times, author: Shen Ning)