ICIS Selected as Benchmark Provider for Shanghai Clearing House Petrochemical Swaps

SINGAPORE, July 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Leading petrochemical market intelligence provider, ICIS, is pleased to announce that it has been selected by the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH) to provide price benchmarks for two upcoming petrochemical swaps contracts - styrene monomer (SM) and monoethylene glycol (MEG), approved for launch on 20 July 2015.

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The ICIS assessments to be used for clearing are the SM Ex-tank East China quote and the MEG CFR China quote, both denominated in Chinese yuan (CNY). ICIS will also provide daily forward curves for SM and MEG, to be used by the SHCH for marked-to-market purposes.

"We are very pleased that the SHCH has chosen ICIS price assessments for China's first petrochemical swaps contracts to be cleared by a central counterparty. Their confidence in ICIS as a leading benchmark provider is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our 300 plus staff in China," said Sean Liu, General Manager of ICIS China.

In 2014, China consumed 8.8 million tonnes of SM, a feedstock used in the production of polystyrene plastic and certain types of synthetic rubber. In the same year, the country also consumed 12.1 million tonnes of MEG, a primary feedstock for production of polyester chips and fibre. SHCH has decided to focus on SM and MEG first for swaps clearing as these are relatively mature markets with high liquidity.

The use of domestic prices for SM reflects China's recent transition from heavy dependence on styrene imports, to greater consumption of domestically produced material. The MEG swaps contract corresponds to imported cargoes traded in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

As the world's largest market for SM and MEG, industry participants in China have long sought to manage risks associated with volatile prices. The SHCH's new swaps contracts will allow market participants to mitigate the impact of unexpected price changes on their business, as well as counter-party risk.

"ICIS is an influential benchmark provider to the global market, so the SHCH has decided to use ICIS in the SM and MEG swaps final settlement price. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our financial derivatives clearing operations to meet the demands of the industries we serve to hedge against risk," said Ms. Zhang Lei, General Manager of Business Innovation at the SHCH.

By the close of business on Monday, 64 MEG and 160 SM contracts were traded for August and September settlement.

The SHCH is the central counterparty clearing institution for China's OTC market authorised by People's Bank of China (PBC), and the first joint-stock company and subsidiary unit of the PBC. It is committed to becoming a standardised, market-oriented and internationalised clearing service provider. Based on a strong sense of risk prevention and an effective risk management framework, SHCH offers centralised and standardised clearing services in yuan and foreign currencies for spot and financial derivatives transactions, as well as yuan cross-border transactions approved by the PBC.

About ICIS  

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider and has fast-growing energy and fertilizer divisions. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. Some 350 of ICIS's staff are journalists engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles. ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group PLC

About Reed Business Information  

Reed Business Information provides information and online data services to business professionals worldwide. Customers have access to our high-value industry data, analytics, information and tools. Our strong global brands hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day.  RBI is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.

For further information about this release, please contact:
Natasha Pilapil
[email protected]
Direct line: +65-6780-4395

SOURCE ICIS