New Fastmarkets-settled Southern Yellow Pine contract to launch at CME Group

LONDON, March 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastmarkets, a leading cross-commodity price-reporting agency, announced that it has been selected as the PRA for the new CME Group cash-settled lumber futures contract. Designed to support North America's fastest-growing lumber-producing region across the supply chain, Southern Yellow Pine futures will begin trading on March 31, 2025, pending regulatory review.

The new lumber contract leverages Fastmarkets' trusted Random Lengths Southern Yellow Pine #2&Btr 2x4 (eastside) daily price, an industry benchmark. Unlike traditional futures contracts reliant on physical delivery, this contract will be settled based on the difference between the contract price and the market price published at the expiration of each contract.

Why Southern Yellow Pine?

Southern Yellow Pine is one of North America's largest sources of lumber supply and represents over 36% of softwood North American softwood lumber production. The growth of this species in the US, combined with trade challenges such as tariffs on Canadian lumber, underscored the need for a dedicated futures contract aligned with the US supply chain. 

"Demand for Southern Yellow Pine has increased as North American lumber production shifts southeast, creating new hedging needs for the industry," said John Ricci, managing director and global head of agriculture products at CME Group. "We are pleased to introduce the new Fastmarkets-settled Southern Yellow Pine futures, which are complementary to our SPF futures and will allow participants across the value chain to manage their price exposure more effectively."

With the rapid expansion of Southern Yellow Pine and increasing demand in residential and remodeling sectors, the timing is perfect to introduce this tailored risk management solution. The contract aligns with current market trends and addresses critical needs:

• Specific hedging capabilities for a rapidly growing lumber category.
• Greater accuracy and confidence, with Fastmarkets' IOSCO-compliant price assessments.
• Adapted to shifting domestic supply as reliance on Western contracts decreases amid persistent trade uncertainties and declining sawlog availability.

"Fastmarkets is proud to partner with CME Group, combining decades of trusted price assessments with one of the world's most respected marketplaces. This contract provides an essential resource for risk management during a pivotal time for the lumber industry," said Przemek Koralewski, Fastmarkets global head of market development.

The Southern Yellow Pine futures contract is ideal for professionals across the softwood lumber supply chain, including:

• Loggers, mills and treaters
• Wholesalers, retailers and traders
• End users, such as home builders

With trusted data from Fastmarkets and the innovation of CME Group, the Southern Pine Futures Contract empowers industry participants to mitigate risks and capitalize on growth opportunities in North America's fastest-growing lumber-producing region.

Southern Yellow Pine (Fastmarkets) futures will be listed by and subject to the rules of CME. For more information on the Southern Pine Futures Contract and how to trade, click here.

Find out how Fastmarkets can help you or email [email protected] to connect with our team.

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ABOUT FASTMARKETS

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading PRA and information provider for the agriculture, forest products, metals and energy transition commodities' markets. Fastmarkets serves its customers with commodity benchmark prices and assessments, forecasts, analytics, insights, news and events. Its data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management.

Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating from 1865 and is built on trust and deep market expertise. It has more than 750 employees spread across several global locations including the UK, US, China, Singapore, Brazil, Bulgaria, Belgium, Ukraine and Finland. Fastmarkets is a privately held UK-registered company owned by its shareholders and Astorg, a European private equity firm.

ABOUT CME GROUP    

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Fastmarkets