(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- Dalian Commodity Exchange will permit foreign individual customers to take part in iron ore futures transactions from today, the platform said in a statement.

The Liaoning-based exchange's iron ore futures officially opened to overseas institutional traders in May last year though individual clients had been left out until today.

Iron ore futures have generally been steady over the past year with a big enough market size and sufficient liquidity, a representative of the exchange told state-backed newspaper Economic Daily, adding that the correlation between the futures' price and Platts Iron Ore Index has been above 90 percent.

A total of 118 companies from Singapore, the UK, Australia, and Japan among others have opened accounts as of Feb. 26 and their trading volume has grown steadily. The exchange's various international regimes have already been tested by the market and have been deemed suitable for the introduction of foreign individual clients.

Overseas individual investors can open accounts in the same way as corporate clients though there are some extra requirements related to transactions.

Editor: William Clegg