China's Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) plans to list next year polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle chip and polyester staple fiber (PSF) futures.

ZCE said at the Zhengzhou International Futures Forum it had finished preparatory work for the two products in July and drafted first edition contract details last month. Contract sizes will be 5/t, with a contract duration of 12 months and a minimum price fluctuation of 2 yuan/t, which is in line with the ZCE's current purified terephthalic acid (PTA) futures. ZCE is targeting for the two new products to help polyester industry companies avoid price risk and strengthen their price discovery.

ZCE listed futures for PTA, the main feedstock of polyester products, in December 2006. PTA futures transaction volumes during January-August this year reached 240mn contracts, accounting for 10pc of the total transaction volume in China's futures market, with a daily trading volume 1.47mn contracts.

China is the world's largest polyester producing country, operating more than 55mn t/yr of polymerization capacity as of the end of August, including 10mn t/yr of PET bottle chip and 7mn t/yr of PSF capacity respectively.

Courtesy: Argus