(Yicai) Sept. 23 -- US' Freepoint Commodities has completed the first position transfer in the delivery month of nickel futures by an overseas trader at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, marking the bourse's completion of the internationalization of nickel futures process.

Freepoint Commodities Singapore, a unit of the Connecticut-based trading firm, successively executed buy-side and sell-side delivery position transfers last month and this month through its broker Orient Futures, shifting its nickel futures positions to a Chinese mainland-based entity under its control, the SHFE announced yesterday.

China is the world's largest consumer and importer of nickel, making it a vital market for many nickel companies with strong risk management needs across procurement, inventory management, and sales, the SHFE pointed out. The new position transfer mechanism allows such firms to seamlessly convert overseas positions into mainland inventory and sales, offering robust tools to manage price risks in international trade, it added.

The SHFE opened its nickel futures and options to overseas traders and qualified foreign investors in April, with a growing number of clients, including producers, trading houses, transnational industrial enterprises, and financial institutions, from 18 countries and regions entering the market since then. In addition, 38 overseas intermediaries have been registered.

The SHFE's nickel futures market is growing steadily amid participation from overseas players. Its average daily volume and open interest reached 357,000 lots and 343,000 lots, respectively, between April 22 and Aug. 31, with products from 16 brands, both domestic and foreign, deliverable through the exchange, it noted.

Established in 1999, the SHFE lists 25 futures varieties and 20 option varieties. Six futures and four options are open to all overseas traders, including nickel, crude oil and bonded copper, while 36 are open to qualified foreign investors, according to its website.

SHFE will continue to offer more internationalized products, build a well-functioning market, and facilitate participation by domestic and overseas entities by improving its business rules, strengthening market cultivation, further opening its market, and upgrading its technological infrastructure and delivery services, it stressed.  

Editor: Martin Kadiev