Plastic Futures Debut to Boost China's Petrochem Industry

Plastic futures (linear low-density polyethylene, or LLDPE) premiered Tuesday at Dalian Commodity Exchange in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The move would help boost development of China's petrochemical industry, Li Yongwu, head of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, said.

Li said China depended heavily on imported petrochemical products. The start of plastic futures trading would be conducive to hedging against risks for downstream enterprises of the petrochemical industry. It would give China influence in international plastic markets.

Shang Fulin, head of China Securities Regulatory Commission, rang the bell at the Dalian exchange to launch trading.

He said China's futures industry was growing rapidly with product innovation accelerating.

The revised regulations on futures trading had taken effect, providing legal guarantees for the steady development of the market, Shang said.

China launched its first futures exchange in Zhengzhou, capital of the central Henan Province, in October 1990.

Seventeen futures items are traded on the Chinese mainland, including cotton, sugar, wheat, soybean, maize, LLDPE, copper, aluminum, natural rubber and fuel oil.

According to the China Futures Association, Chinese futures markets in four exchanges - two in Shanghai, one in Zhengzhou and one in Dalian - recorded 14.5 trillion yuan (US$1.9 trillion) in first-half turnover, a growth rate of 43.5 percent from the same period last year.