(Yicai Global) Aug. 10 -- China has debuted zinc and aluminum options today, raising this year's total of new commodity options products to eight.

Trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has been active today for some 288 aluminum options and 100 zinc ones, both linked to the related futures contracts, Xinhua News Agency reported today.

China is the world's largest producer, processor, and consumer of the two widely used non-ferrous metals, and adding tools that allow investors to buy or sell their assets at a certain price helps them to hedge against price fluctuations.

China's first commodity options product, one for soybean meal, was debuted in March 2017 on the Dalian Commodity Exchange. But since the second half of last year, the pace of new additions has accelerated. Now the country has more than 15 such types of financial instruments, including those for polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and iron ore.

The futures market needs to "further increase the variety of [commodity options], enrich the derivatives system, and gradually provide all listed futures contracts with corresponding options," Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in November 2019.

The two new investment tools are structured as American options, meaning that the buyer can exercise the option anytime before 3.30 p.m. on the day of maturity.

Editor: Emmi Laine