On September 30 CME Group announced the launch of trading and clearing services for iron ore 62 percent Fe, CFR China (Platts benchmark) swap futures, reflecting changing dynamics in the global ferrous industry. Trading will be available on the New York trading floor. Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort®, a set of flexible clearing services open to over-the-counter (OTC) market participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and provide neutral settlement prices across asset classes. Trading and clearing are scheduled to begin on October 17 for trade date October 18.
"The ferrous metals industry is one of the largest global commodity markets," said Joe Raia, CME Group managing director of energy and metals products and services. "This contract will complement our existing suite of ferrous, dry freight and international coal futures, and advances our goal of building a complete marketplace for seaborne dry freight products, providing risk management tools across the full ferrous production cycle. In addition, this contract will afford our customers the benefits of capital efficiencies by cross margining against other related products."