China launches world's first stainless steel futures

China on Wednesday started the trading of yuan-denominated stainless steel futures, the first of its kind worldwide targeting the material widely used in the transportation, environmental protection and medical industries.

The listed futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are eight contracts to be delivered from February to September of 2020. Their benchmark prices were set at 15,585 yuan (US$2,203.6) a tonne.

The most active ss2002 contract for February 2020 delivery edged down 10 yuan to open at 15,575 yuan per tonne in daytime trading.

The launch of the stainless steel futures helps provide an open, continuous and transparent price signal and an effective risk management tool for companies in the industrial chain, said Jiang Yan, chairman of the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

It also will help enhance the price-setting power of the country, the world's largest stainless steel producer and consumer, in the global stainless steel market, said Jiang.

China witnessed a rapid growing stainless steel industry, with its production reaching 26.7 million tonnes in 2018, accounting for over half of the global output. The country became a net stainless steel exporter in 2010, reversing from the world's largest importer.