CME Group Announces First Trades and Clearing of Hot-Rolled Coil Steel Options

CHICAGO, Sept. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the first trades of its U.S. Midwest Domestic Hot-Rolled Coil (HRC) Steel Index options equivalent to 20,000 short tons (1,000 contracts), which were cleared through CME ClearPort. The contract is listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX.

Jeffries Bache and Macquarie Futures USA LLC provided clearing services for the transactions via CME ClearPort. A number of companies were counterparties to the trade including Jeffries Bache and Flack Steel, a Cleveland, Ohio-based steel service center.

Harriet Hunnable, CME Group Managing Director, Metals Products says, "Continued uncertainty about global growth and price volatility in the industry has resulted in interest in our steel futures and options products. Options in particular offer market participants a cost-effective means to manage that uncertainty and mitigate their price risk. Clearing these hot-rolled coil steel options further validates our decision to work closely with the U.S. ferrous industry, providing them with a suite of products, like our scrap futures contract launching later this month, to meet their risk management needs."

"We are very excited to have brokered the first cleared HRC option and believe that this is a great example of the innovation that is taking place within the steel sector," said Nick Webb of the Jefferies Bache Metals team in Chicago.  "With the growth of products like this being offered in the marketplace, we as brokers are better able to add value to all levels of the ferrous supply chain."

Jeremy Flack, founder and president of Flack Steel, added, "As representatives of the physical side of the business and proponents of the benefits of using ferrous derivatives to mitigate price risk, we are encouraged by this trade as it shows the gathering and growing liquidity and understanding of ferrous derivatives in our industry."

CME Group offers a diverse suite of risk management tools to the steel market via its Virtual Steel Mill derivative products, which help customers manage price volatility across the steel value chain.

Additionally, August represented a record month for two CME Group Virtual Steel Mill contracts, Iron Ore 62% Fe, CFR China (TSI) Swap futures and options. In August 2012, 1,060 swap futures and 4,010 options on swap futures contracts were cleared, equivalent to over 2 million dry metric tons.

For more information on CME Group's comprehensive suite of ferrous metals risk management products, please visit www.cmegroup.com/ferrous.

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 across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

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. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.

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SOURCE CME Group