Delivery month, also known as contract month, refers to the physical delivery month uniformly stipulated by commodity exchanges for a commodity futures. When the futures contract expires, the buyer's customer or the seller's customer shall deliver the goods or collect the payment for the delivered goods according to the quantity and quality stipulated in the contract to fulfill the futures contract. It is one of the trading conditions of futures contracts.
Commodity exchanges stipulate different contract months for each commodity futures. It varies from commodity to commodity, and generally depends on the habits of commodity harvest season and transportation period. The delivery month of metal raw materials is not seasonal, while the delivery month of agricultural and sideline products such as wheat is seasonal. Some commodity exchanges allow buyers and sellers or either party to deliver on any day of the delivery month. The same commodity futures contract can specify different delivery months, the latest month and the longest forward two years.