Attendees travelled from the Far East, North America and Europe to provide their expert opinion on the future development of the Exchange's freight market information. Issues discussed included the promotion of increased transparency and liquidity in the forward freight agreements market and the expansion of the Exchange's tanker market information.
The Exchange produces a wide range of independent freight market information including 39 freight rate assessments, a coal assessment and six indices daily. They are used by both the futures and physical markets as settlement mechanisms for their contracts.
Chaired by Janet Sykes of the Exchange, the new group is designed to provide a forum for Baltic Exchange members to present their views on freight market information and derivatives trading to the Baltic Exchange.
The meeting also saw the appointment of Pierre Aury of energy giant AEP as the new chairman for the Freight Market Information Users Group. The group represents the interests of major charterers, energy traders, grain houses and others who use the Exchange's data in trading.
He said:
"This first meeting was a real success and saw some lively debate. I firmly believe that the group will play an important role in ensuring the continued confidence in the world's only independent source of freight market assessments. I hope that members of the group will continue their discussions on the Baltic Exchange e-mail forum."
The next meeting of the FMFCG will take place at 1300 on Thursday 5 December at the Baltic Exchange, and a further meeting will be held in Connecticut during the CMA conference in March 2003.
