The contracts-the first chemical futures to be traded as well as the first time chemical futures products will trade on a futures exchange with an electronic link to an online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace-will provide new risk management opportunities for the chemicals industry.
Each CME-CheMatch futures contract on benzene or mixed xylenes will represent 42,000 gallons of the chemical and will be cash settled at contract expiration to an index of monthly contract prices compiled and calculated by DeWitt & Company, a Houston-based international petrochemical consulting firm. Contracts will be quoted in U.S. dollars per gallon, with a minimum price increment (tick) of $0.001 per gallon valued at $42.00 per contract.
The contracts will trade on CME's GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. (Central Time), Monday-Friday. Contracts will be offered in all 12 calendar months, with six consecutive months listed for trading at all times. At launch, the lead month contract will be December 2001.
Linked via the Internet, CheMatch.com's secure, neutral trading platform and the GLOBEX2 system will provide seamless transitions between the two sites and offer chemical companies, traders and financial institutions the ability to trade both physical and derivative products. Members of the CheMatch.com Global Trading Networksm will be able to enter trades on GLOBEX2 through the CheMatch.com platform at www.chematch.com. The new products will trade exclusively electronically on GLOBEX2and clear with CME clearing firms through CME's state-of-the-art CLEARING 21® clearing system.
For more information about CME and CheMatch.com, visit the Web sites at www.cme.com and www.chematch.com.
