Brief introduction of British billet futures
London Metal Exchange (LME) is the oldest and most influential base metal futures exchange. The exchange has been studying steel futures for many years. LME's exploration and research on steel index has experienced changes from specific steel varieties to steel index and then to specific steel varieties. Before 2003, LME had studied steel futures, but after research, it was found that it was very difficult to launch steel futures, so it turned to study steel index futures. The difficulty of steel index futures mainly lies in compiling a reasonable steel price index. After re-study in recent years, it is considered that listed steel futures are still feasible. After repeated, LME reconsidered the steel futures that need physical delivery and decided to use billet as the trading target. LME billet futures was officially listed and traded on April 28th, 2008, and the first delivery date was July 28th, 2008.
Steel is the second largest commodity market after oil and natural gas. At present, the annual output of steel in the world exceeds 654.38+0.3 billion tons, of which the annual output of steel billets listed and traded in LME accounts for half of the total steel output, exceeding 500 million tons, and the global annual sales can reach 500 billion US dollars. Billet is a semi-finished product cast by molten steel made in the steelmaking furnace, and it is the upstream product of outstanding talents for construction. LME said that the reason why billet futures were first introduced was based on the following considerations: First, compared with plate, billet trade is more free, and compared with steel end products, billet storage is more convenient and the cost is lower. Secondly, although the cross-border circulation of billet is small, its annual international market circulation scale of 30 million tons is enough to compete with non-ferrous metals. Since 2000, the global billet output has increased by about 40%, and by 20 10, the global billet output will increase by 32% on the basis of the current 5120,000 tons. Thirdly, there is a good correlation between billet price and steel varieties such as rebar, and billet futures can be used for price risk management of the whole steel industry.
London commented, "Small billet has the characteristics of key commodities, because it is a standardized and interchangeable product with many producers and consumers. We work closely with all these groups to design contracts that meet their requirements, while also bringing transparency, reference pricing and risk management to this important market. "
At present, the main billet exporting countries in the world are Ukraine, Russian Federation, China, Brazil and France. The main importing countries are Italy, Vietnam, Turkey and South Korea. In view of the fact that most billet trade is carried out within the domestic and regional scope, LME pointed out that billet futures are introduced to meet the needs of regional trade.
LME confirms that there are no China products in the delivered 1 1 billet brand. 1 1 Billet brand comes from 10 steel mills in Belarus, Greece, Malaysia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The London Metal Exchange (LME) said that China steel producers have not yet entered the market due to the export tax imposed by the China government on steel billets. However, Liz Milan, commercial director of LME, said that if tariffs were reduced or abolished, the interest of China investors would be greatly increased. Milan said that other parts of Asia are very interested in the new steel contract. In other Far East regions, including Taiwan Province Province, Malaysia and South Korea, steel producers are very interested in this contract, and six manufacturers have registered.
LME billet futures contract
The text of LME billet futures contract shows that the listed contracts will range from spot monthly contracts to1May forward contracts; The scale of a contract is 65 tons of billet. Different from the previous single metal futures contract, the billet futures contract listed by LME will be two regional contracts (Far East and Mediterranean contracts). The delivery places in the Far East are Malaysia and South Korea; The Mediterranean region is delivered in Turkey and Dubai respectively. LME explained that the reason for choosing these delivery locations is to consider the distribution of the main import and export areas of billets and the transportation cost. In addition, the two contracts will also reflect the different fundamentals and pricing mechanisms of the above markets.
Brief introduction of Japanese scrap futures
Tokyo Bay is an important steel base in Japan, and TOCOM is a comprehensive industrial futures exchange, ranking first in the Japanese futures exchange in terms of trading volume and influence. However, TOCOM did not list steel futures, but the third-ranked Central Commodity Exchange (C-COM) took the lead in launching steel futures, becoming the only exchange in Japan to list steel futures at present. C-COM, formerly known as the Central Commodity Exchange, is the third-ranked exchange in Japan. Located in Nagoya, it merged with Osaka Commodity Exchange in June 5438 +2007 10, and changed its name to Central Osaka Commodity Exchange.
Japan is the second largest steel producer and the largest steel exporter in the world. Exporting countries are mainly concentrated in Asia, and their integration with the international market is much higher than that of India. The fluctuation of world scrap price is very violent, which is not conducive to Japan's economy and increases the risk of Japanese enterprises. Since 2003, the price of steel raw materials in Japan has been rising continuously, while the price of downstream products has remained basically unchanged. In order to ensure the stable supply of raw materials, in June 2004, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan issued the Initiative for Stabilizing the Supply of Raw Materials and Natural Resources, which included suggestions for strengthening the development of overseas resources. One of them is to improve the market mechanism and study the possibility of listing steel futures on commodity futures exchanges. Accordingly, in July 2004, Zhenghua established the "Research Committee on the Circulation Stability of Renewable Resources", and in February of that year, the above Committee submitted a research report on steel futures. June 5438+October 2005 10, Zhenghua established the "Preparatory Committee for the Listing of Scrap Futures"; In March 2005, Zhenghua submitted an application for listing scrap futures to the regulatory authorities, and in August 2005, it was approved to list scrap futures. In June, 2005, 65438+1October, 65438+1October, scrap futures was officially listed and traded on C-COM, which was the first scrap futures contract in the world.
The main reason why Japan introduced scrap futures instead of steel futures is that it is difficult to form a unified standard for steel futures because of the diversity of Japanese steel products, and it is relatively easy to unify standards because of the few grades of raw materials such as scrap, so it is the best choice for Japan to seize pricing power and avoid price risks.
For Japanese steel companies, hedging is needed. It usually takes two months to assemble and ship at the port. During this period, if the price of scrap fluctuates, enterprises are vulnerable to losses. For iron and steel production enterprises, although the price of scrap fluctuates every day, the price of its products is only adjusted once a month, and there is a risk of time synchronization. If scrap futures can be used, these risks can be avoided by hedging in the futures market.
At present, there are 52 members in the scrap futures market, including market makers 3 1 and ordinary members (steel mills) 2 1. Major trading companies in Japan, such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu and Sumitomo, are all involved in this transaction. However, the current scrap trading volume is still relatively small, and the liquidity is not strong, and the delivery volume is about 3,500 tons per month. Although the trading volume is small, the importance and role of scrap futures have been gradually accepted by steel mills.
Japan Zhenghua scrap futures contract
There are also many specifications of scrap steel, and the highest specification (grade) of scrap steel (heavy waste) is selected as the standard for futures varieties. The standard products must meet the standard of Unified Specification for Scrap Acceptance formulated by Japan Tieyuan Association as an enterprise legal person, and the new broken bulk with the side length below 1200mm. The standard product for delivery is scrap A after steel cutting, and there are three delivery grades: scrap A after steel cutting, scrap B after steel cutting and scrap B after steel cutting. The place of delivery can be agreed by both parties, or the dock where Tokyo Bay is located can be the place of delivery.
China steel futures
China will launch steel futures specifications (latest information). China is the largest producer and consumer of steel in the world. In 2007, the steel output of China reached 560 million tons, accounting for 1/3 of the global total. China is a big iron and steel country, but it is not yet a strong iron and steel country. International iron ore prices have risen sharply year after year, which has brought great impact to China's iron and steel industry. In order to gain international steel pricing power, foreign exchanges have launched steel futures in recent years, and NYMEX is also planning to launch steel futures. Rebar and wire rod are steel products with China characteristics. Therefore, it is imperative to introduce rebar and wire futures to avoid steel price risks and strive for international pricing power.
1. Reinforcement
Steel bars are ribbed bars, which are divided into hot-rolled ribbed bars and cold-rolled ribbed bars. Rebar is also called deformed steel bar or special-shaped steel bar. Different from ordinary round steel, there are longitudinal bars and transverse bars on the surface, which are usually evenly distributed along the length direction. Rebar is a kind of small steel, which is mainly used for the skeleton of reinforced concrete building components. It is required to have certain mechanical strength, bending deformation performance and process welding performance in use. The raw billet used to produce rebar is carbon structural steel or low alloy structural steel that has been killed and melted, and the finished rebar is delivered in hot-rolled shape, normalized or hot-rolled state.
There are two common classification methods of steel bars: one is to classify according to the geometric shape of steel bars, and the other is to classify or classify according to the cross-sectional shape of transverse bars and the spacing between bars. For example, steel bars are classified into Type I and Type II in British Standard (BS4449). This classification mainly reflects the grip performance of steel bars. Secondly, rebar is classified according to performance (grade). For example, in China standard (GB 1499), rebar is divided into three grades according to strength grade (yield point/tensile strength). According to Japanese industrial standard (JISG3 1 12), rebar can be divided into five categories according to its comprehensiveness. British Standard (BS446 1) also stipulates several grades of steel bar performance test. In addition, steel bars can also be classified according to their uses, such as ordinary steel bars for reinforced concrete and heat-treated steel bars for prestressed reinforced concrete.
China is a big producer of rebar. Due to the large investment in fixed assets in China, rebar is basically used to meet domestic demand, and the export volume is not much. In recent years, with the development of infrastructure construction in China, the annual output of rebar has been increasing at a rate of more than 16.6%. The annual output increased from 37.35 million tons and 5438+0 in 2006 to 1.37 million tons in 2007, an increase of 64.02 million tons and an increase of 5438+0 over 2006. It is estimated that the output in 2008 will be 97.97 million tons. Among the 22 kinds of steel products classified by varieties, rebar accounts for the largest proportion of the total steel products, which decreased from 23.8% in 200 1 to 15.9% in 2007, a decrease of 7.9 percentage points. The year with the largest proportion was 2003, accounting for 25%, accounting for a quarter of the total steel.
In recent years, the import of reinforced steel products is few, and the export is more, and it is rising rapidly year by year. However, the proportion of net exports in steel bar production is very low.
Step 2 wire
Hot rolled round steel with a diameter of 5-4mm and rebar below 10mm are commonly called wire rods. Most wires are wound into coils by winding machines, so they are also called wire rods or coils, as shown in the following figure.
Wire rods are mainly used as raw materials for reinforced concrete reinforcement, welding structural parts or reprocessing (such as wire drawing, wire drawing, etc.). ). According to the distribution catalogue of steel products, wire rods include ordinary low-carbon steel hot-rolled wire rods, electric welding wire rods, wire rods for blasting lines, quenched and tempered threaded wire rods and high-quality wire rods. The widely used wire rod is mainly ordinary low carbon steel hot rolled wire rod, also known as ordinary wire rod. It is made of common carbon steels Q 195, Q2 15 and Q235 by hot rolling, with a nominal diameter of 5.5- 14.0mm and a weight of 100-200kg per coil. Now it is basically undistorted. Ordinary wire rods are mainly used in construction, wire drawing, packaging, covered electrode and the manufacture of bolts, nuts and rivets. High quality wire rod, only supply high quality carbon structural steel hot rolled wire rod. Such as 08F, 10, 35Mn, 50Mn, 65, 75Mn, etc. Used as raw materials for metal products such as steel wires and other structural parts, and other high-quality steel rolling wires. Traditionally, more than 8 mm is included in high-quality profiles, and less than 8 mm is included in metal products.
Wire rod is one of the steel products with large consumption. After rolling, it can be directly used for reinforcement and welding of reinforced concrete structures, and can also be used after reprocessing. For example, it is drawn into various specifications of steel wire, then twisted into steel wire rope, woven into steel wire mesh, wound and shaped, and heat-treated into springs; Hot forging and cold forging into rivets and cold forging and rolling into bolts and screws; Make mechanical parts or tools by cutting and heat treatment.
Wire rods are generally made of ordinary carbon steel and high-quality carbon steel. According to the distribution catalogue and uses of steel products, wire rods include ordinary low-carbon steel hot-rolled wire rods, high-quality carbon steel wire rods, carbon-clad electrode wire rods, quenched and tempered threaded wire rods, silk-making wire rods, piano wire rods and stainless steel wire rods. China is the largest wire rod producer in the world, accounting for more than one third of the world's total output. Wire rod is also the second largest steel product in China, and its proportion in domestic steel production has been very high. In 2007, the domestic wire production accounted for 14.2% of the total steel production in China. In recent years, the growth rate of domestic wire rod production is almost the same as that of domestic crude steel production, which remains at around 20%. In 2007, the growth rate slowed down to 13.8%, and the total output nearly doubled compared with 2003. Judging from the import and export of wire rod, wire rod has long been the main steel export product in China, and it has always maintained a net export status in China, especially in recent years. In 2007, China exported 6.238 million tons of wire rod, an increase of 684,000 tons over the previous year, with an increase of 12.3%. Imports were 610.4 million tons, a decrease of 910.0 million tons over the previous year. From the perspective of domestic wire consumption, wire is widely used in the construction field. Since 2000, driven by strong domestic investment demand, domestic wire consumption has also maintained rapid growth.