CME Group Expands Base Metals Offering with New Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid (Metal Bulletin) Futures

LONDON and CHICAGO, March 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it will expand its base metals offering with the introduction of a new Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid (Metal Bulletin) futures contract to begin trading on 21 March, 2016. Pending relevant regulatory review periods, the new contract will be available for trading on CME Globex, for submission for clearing through CME ClearPort, and will be listed with and subject to the rules and regulations of COMEX.

"This new contract complements our existing regional aluminium premium futures contracts, and will enable a broader and more diverse set of our European customers to hedge their exposure to the aluminium premium," said Young-Jin Chang, CME Group Executive Director of Metals Products. "Our new Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid contract responds to commercial customer demands for a solution to manage their premium price risk and builds on the successful launch of our Aluminium European Premium Duty-Unpaid European premium futures last year."

"Volatile aluminium premiums have had a major impact on the market over recent years, and the previous lack of a good hedging mechanism has resulted in huge financial uncertainties for buyers," said Raju Daswani, Metal Bulletin Managing Director. "With the success of CME Group's duty-unpaid aluminium premium contract, settled against Metal Bulletin's industry benchmark, it is imperative that the same hedging opportunity now be provided to the duty-paid market, which is a liquid trading arena that is highly relevant to major European manufacturers."

This new Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid (Metal Bulletin) futures contract will complement CME Group's existing suite of aluminium risk management tools, including its Aluminum Japan Premium (Platts) futures, Aluminium European Premium Duty-Unpaid (Metal Bulletin) futures, Aluminum MW U.S. Transaction Premium Platts futures and physically delivered Aluminum futures.

Industry participation in CME Group's suite of regional aluminium premium futures contracts has steadily increased. Since its April 2012 launch, the Aluminum MW US Transaction Premium futures contract has traded the equivalent of more than 1,368,475 metric tons and reached record open interest of 27,227 contracts on 1 March 2016. The existing Aluminium European Premium futures contract has traded 150,050 metric tons and reached a record of 5,127 contracts open interest on 1 March 2016 since it began trading in September 2015. Since launch in December 2015, Aluminum Japan Premium futures contracts have traded 45,075 metric tons and reached a peak of 1,608 open interest on 1 March 2016.

Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid (Metal Bulletin) futures will be 25 metric tons in size and will be financially settled against the Metal Bulletin assessment of aluminium spot price transactions in Europe.

For more information on CME Group's metals products, please visit www.cmegroup.com/metals.

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, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange.  CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer 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.  KCBOT, KCBT and Kansas City Board of Trade are trademarks of The Board of Trade of Kansas City, Missouri, 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

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