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Liffe today announced further enhancements to its Robusta Coffee Contract, including an increase in the Contract size from 5 to 10 tonnes.
Liffe recently implemented a reduction in Robusta Coffee futures trading fees from 50p to 25p, for all existing contract months, and extended Robusta Coffee trading hours to open at 8am and close at 5.30pm from 1 October.
The enhancements will be implemented through a new Contract specification which, following a period of parallel listing, will supersede the existing one. Liffe is targeting November 2008 as the first parallel-listed contract month but in order to accelerate the scope for customers to take advantage of the enhancements, timings will depend on further customer consultation and on finalising the new specifications. In summary, the further enhancements will be:- an increase in the size of the Robusta Coffee Contract from 5 to 10 tonnes;
- broadening of the range of Robusta Coffee potentially deliverable against the Contract (e.g. to incorporate a greater proportion of coffee produced in Vietnam and Indonesia) together with an updating of Liffe’s Grading Procedures to incorporate the latest developments in the underlying market;
- allowing for delivery of re-bagged Robusta Coffee which had originally been shipped in bulk; and
- extending Liffe’s existing large position reporting regime to cover its Robusta Coffee, Cocoa and White Sugar Contracts.
Ian Dudden, Director of Commodity Products at Liffe, said “I am delighted to be announcing these ground-breaking enhancements to our benchmark Robusta Coffee Contract. Increasing the Contract size builds upon seven consecutive years of record growth with Robusta Coffee futures volumes year-to-date being 25% ahead of 2006 - averaging 17,300 contracts every day - and options volumes showing even stronger growth being 47% ahead of 2006. Liffe’s customers increasingly appreciate the efficiencies of trading futures and options electronically on LIFFE CONNECT® and by further enhancing the Contract specifications, we are responding to the evolving needs of our customers.”
