China’s Baowu Steel Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) on October 8, according to which spot trading and futures trading will be accessible at both of their trading platforms, according to China Economic News.
The Shanghai Steel Exchange under China Baowu and the Shanghai Futures Exchange will open to each other by the end of this year or in early 2020. According to Huang Keli, head of the Shanghai Steel Exchange, the connection between spot and futures steel trading will effectively close the distance between customers and producers.
“We want to make Shanghai a global hub for the steel industry. The center can remotely control production site big data and smart manufacturing through technologies such as 5G,” said Chen Derong, chairman of Baowu.