CME Group Announces the Launch of Clearing Services for Four New Fertilizer Swap Futures

CHICAGO, June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of trading and clearing services for four new cash-settled fertilizer swap futures for trade date July 11. Trading for these urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) based fertilizers will be available on the New York trading floor with clearing services available through CME ClearPort®. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of NYMEX.

"For more than 150 years, agricultural producers and agribusinesses have relied on our benchmark grain futures and options contracts to manage their commodity price risk," said Tim Andriesen, Managing Director, Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments, CME Group. "The fertilizer products we're introducing allow market participants to manage fertilizer prices, one of the key and most volatile price inputs into grain production, further allowing a focus on margin management."

Four new CME Group fertilizer swap futures will be listed on CME ClearPort and the NYMEX trading floor:

• Urea (Granular) FOB NOLA Swap Future
• UAN FOB US Gulf Coast Swap Future
• DAP FOB Tampa Swap Future
• DAP FOB NOLA Swap Future

Clearing services for the new fertilizer swap futures 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 – expanding CME Group's cleared OTC agricultural markets offering. Additionally, these contracts will be financially settled against the price assessments compiled by ICIS and Profercy.

For additional information on CME Group fertilizer swap futures, please visit www.cmegroup.com/fertilizer.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk.  CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.  CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.  CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®.  These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CBOE®, Chicago Board Options Exchange®, CBOE Volatility Index® and VIX® are registered trademarks of Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group