CME Group has announced it?will launch North American physically delivered?Aluminum futures?contracts on May 5, 2014, pending regulatory approvals.
This new contract will expand CME Group’s suite of base metals products, including the?Aluminum MW U.S. Transaction Premium Platts (25MT) futures?contract. The new Aluminum futures contracts will offer market participants a tool for managing their exposure to volatile North American prices, while giving them access to physical aluminum at numerous CME Group-approved U.S. warehouses.
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Harriet Hunnable, CME Group Metals Products Managing Director, said in a press release,?”Aluminum is an indispensable part of our daily lives and is used in everything from building materials and transportation to packaging and wiring. Our customers want a North American physically deliverable aluminum futures contract from CME Group that provides them with greater transparency. Together with our Aluminum Midwest U.S. Premium contract, this new benchmark will enable industry participants to better hedge their North American aluminum price risk.”
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The new contracts will be 25 metric tons in size and come as Midwest premium prices have increased more than 50 percent since the year’s start from the growing demand for this industrial metal coupled with supply constraints in the U.S. The exchange’s existing Aluminum Midwest U.S. Premium futures contract is financially settled and has traded the equivalent of more than 16,000 metric tons since the start of 2014.
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With this?new Aluminum futures contracts, it will trade on the floor and electronically via CME Globex, as well as submission for clearing through CME ClearPort; it will be listed by and subject to the rules of COMEX.