Shanghai sets to expand trading scale of key metals incl. copper, aluminum

Focusing on commodities with strong growth potential, the plan outlines efforts to expand trading in key non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminum. To this end, the city will support both domestic and international companies involved in upstream operations to increase the market supply of these metals and encourage commodity trading service platforms to diversify their product offerings and attract both upstream and downstream enterprises in the copper and aluminum value chains to trade on these platforms.

In addition, the city aims to increase international trading for ferrous commodities, promote the spot and futures market interactive development for emerging metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel, and build trading platforms for hydrogen-based green energy commodities.

For price services, the plan proposes supporting third-party institutions to independently gather price data and compile and publish the "Shanghai Price" for bulk commodities. It will advance the use of the "Shanghai Price" as a benchmark for pricing and settlement in spot trading.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com