During the period of 1998, the United Nations Trade and Development Committee investigated the timber futures contracts, and concluded that the listing of timber futures varieties, especially those with tropical hardwood plywood as the subject matter, was helpful to solve a series of problems in international timber trade.
In the history of the futures market, the exchanges in the United States, Japan, Malaysia and some Nordic countries have tried wood commodity futures. At present, there are few forestry varieties in international commodity futures, among which the timber futures of Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is one of the few forestry varieties.
As early as 1969, CME introduced the timber futures contract. In that year, 744 lots were sold, and in the second year, 85,565,438+03 lots were sold, which was about twice as much as that of plywood contracts listed on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in the same period. In the past decades, the contract has been revised many times and developed into the current timber futures contract of any length.
CME's timber futures are delivered by truck, boat and board, and the benchmark delivery place runs through the States along the Mississippi River in the central United States from north to south. Buyers and sellers can also negotiate to determine the place of delivery. In terms of quality, CME stipulates the length range, packaging, wood, moisture and marking of wood involved in delivery. At present, the daily turnover of CME timber futures contracts of any length is about 65,438+0,000 lots.
Although most timber futures contracts have been delisted and delisted, their practices have reference significance for us to design relevant systems.
First of all, contract design and maintenance are combined with the spot market. 1969, CBOT and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) both listed wood-based panel futures contracts, but NYMEX's wood-based panel futures contract only sold 792 lots in the following year (1970), so it was delisted. In contrast, CBOT's early success is due to its ability to better integrate the spot market habits in contract design and maintenance, and to continuously improve futures contracts with this goal. For example, CBOT uses freight documents as delivery documents, while the New York Mercantile Exchange uses railway transport documents. At that time, many long-term speculators bought goods in the futures market and realized them quickly, but the ability of realizing goods on railway transportation lines was far less than that of shipping, which made speculators more inclined to trade with shipping documents in CBOT. CBOT not only pays attention to the actual spot situation in contract design, but also modifies the contract several times according to the spot market situation after the contract is listed, so that the contract always has the purpose of serving customers in the spot market.
Second, contract design pays attention to the needs of industrial customers. CME's timber futures have been listed for 44 years, which is the longest listed timber futures contract in the world.
It can be seen from the relevant system of CME timber futures contract that the contract design pays great attention to the needs of industrial customers. First of all, the name of CME's timber futures is changed from the original timber futures to the current timber futures of any length, and only the volume of delivered timber is specified, not the length, which is convenient for industrial customers to organize the supply of goods; Secondly, CME stipulates the delivery overflow and shortage, and stipulates that when the seller's delivery volume is within the overflow and shortage range, the buyer will settle the payment according to the actual delivery volume, which ensures the smooth delivery and protects the interests of both buyers and sellers.
(The seventh knowledge of fiberboard and plywood)