Europe methanol futures contract ‘to launch in March’

Vicky Ellis

09-Jan-2018

LONDON (ICIS)–A futures contract for the European methanol market could launch as early as March, a Russian methanol trader who is involved in the process said on Tuesday.

Metadynea Trading, a Swiss supply and distribution business whose parent company is Russian methanol producer Metafrax, is actively preparing for the launch of this contract, its trading manager Vasily Mikhaylov told ICIS.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mikhaylov wrote in a LinkedIn status that the “European methanol futures contract expects [to] be launched by mid March.”

“One of the international trading platforms will be officially launching a listed methanol futures product [mid-March] time,” added Mikhaylov.

It is understood that the trading platform intending to launch the futures contract cannot be named for the time being.

Preparations are underway to take part in the futures contract, Mikhaylov said in a phone call on Tuesday: “I’m talking to quite a number of potential clearing counterparties who are able to trade paper and we are in the process of signing the agreements.”

This follows news in November 2017 of companies openly discussing bids and offers for futures business, via Swiss broker Starsupply which is entering the methanol derivatives market without an existing significant role in Europe’s physical market.

Earlier in the year, some swaps business is understood to have already been done via the broker Newstone, one of the existing major players in Europe’s physical market, alongside PCB, plus other smaller brokers.

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