Futures Daily:

Mr. Liu, good morning. The prices of some commodity futures, especially coal, steel and coke, witnessed great fluctuations last year due to the liquidity shock, which attracted widespread attention. The CSRC issued a series of measuresensuring stable operation of the commodity futures market in 2016. We noticed recently that the prices of rebar and iron ore futures have edged close to a record high. I wonder what does the CSRC have in mind in managing the commodity futures market this year? And, how will the CSRC further promote the reform and development of China’s commodity futures market so as to better serve the real economy? Thank you.

Liu Shiyu:

I will ask Mr. Fang Xinghai to answer your question.

Fang Xinghai:

This is a broad question. The trading of coal, steel and coke were quite active last year, and prices fluctuated greatly. This is due to a number of reasons. First, China wanted to slash production capacity last year. Second, the property market was active, leading to demand outstripping supply. Moreover, speculative capital constitutes a large part of China’s financial system. Speculation arises for two reasons: hype and the capital needed. The coal, steel, and coke futures market last year displayed the two factors, therefore, we saw a flood of speculative capital last year.

We managed to reduce the overheated trade volume last year as we adopted the following measures: increasing transaction costs, properly increasing the requirements for a cash deposit, tightening the position limits of some speculative accounts, and forbidding illegal accounts from trading and carrying out related investigations. The general idea was that the market did not need any unreasonably heated trading, and the futures market should be allowed to play its inherent role. We are satisfied with the outcome of last year’s management exercise, as trading overall was stable and the future prices were lower than spot prices.

We plan to operate some new features this year, such as option trading of agricultural products. We are also preparing for the introduction of crude oil futures, hoping it will be launched as soon as possible. We will step up efforts to make more trades available. In terms of transaction supervision, we will adhere to last year’s principles, namely, we don’t need overheated trading, but will pay more attention to pricing and seek to attract more industrial customers. Meanwhile, we will also further internationalize the futures market, that is to say, seeking more overseas customers to enter China’s futures market.