The SGX Iron Ore Swap Contract delivered another robust performance in November 2009. Cleared volume soared more than nine-fold to nearly 1.5 million tons or 2,910 lots from its April 2009 launch. This volume superseded record set in August 2009 by 60%.
Since its launch, a total of close to 11,000 lots, equivalent to more than 5.4 million tons of iron ore swaps have been cleared through SGX AsiaClear.
The SGX Iron Ore Swap Contract is the world's first, and a cash-settled financial instrument traded over-the-counter and cleared through SGX AsiaClear. It is a useful and important financial instrument for iron ore producers, traders, steel mills and other industry participants in managing their price risk exposure in physical iron ore and mitigating counterparty credit risk in the OTC swap market. The size of each Iron Ore Swap contract is 500 metric tons and is cash-settled based on the average of The Steel Index (TSI) daily iron ore reference prices in the expiring month.