Futures exchange aims to open its doors

The Shanghai Futures Exchange regards opening its doors to the world as a focus this year, Chairman Yang Maijun said on Wednesday.

"While China's real economy and spot trade have been fully internationalized, the futures market is still limited to domestic investors, so opening our doors to the world is a vital task for us this year," Yang said.

He said more investments in technology and improvements in the trading mechanism are also important.

Consecutive trading (also known as night trading) "will bring the Chinese futures market more in line with international practice," said Yang. "The crude oil futures that we'll launch will use that system."

Night trading allows Chinese investors to be active in the market during the hours when overseas derivative contracts are trading.

Night trading was offered for gold and silver futures as of July last year, followed by nonferrous metals in December.

Yang said futures contracts for gold, silver, rubber and crude oil are very closely linked with global market condition, so consecutive trading is positive for China's real economy.

The exchange is preparing to launch the country's first yuan-denominated crude oil futures contract in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Yang said the exchange will seek to build a platform for global petroleum trades and provide convenient currency-exchange and tax facilities.

Xu Mao, a product manager at Galaxy Futures, said that China relies heavily on crude oil imports, so having oil futures in Shanghai will help the nation to participate in pricing. China overtook the United States last September to become the world's biggest net oil importer.

Futures contracts for hot rolled steel coil, tin, nickel and other metals will be launched this year.

Yang said hot rolled coil is a very important product for the Chinese steel sector, and futures for that product will launch within two months.