UNITED STATES: ICE Launches Its First Asia Ethylene Futures Contracts

Tuesday December 14 2021

The Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) has announced that it plans to launch its first ethylene futures contracts on December 13^th.

Designed for participants who need to manage their exposure to ethylene price risk from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia, the two cash settled futures contracts are based on ethylene price assessments by ICIS. The ICIS CFR NE (northeast) Asia ethylene assessment and the ICIS CFR SE (southeast) Asia ethylene assessment are quoted on a cost and freight (CFR) basis per metric ton of ethylene for delivery.

Ethylene is considered to be amongst the most important and widely used petrochemical components. It is one of the key ingredients to make plastic, PVC, polyethylene, and ethylene glycol used in polyester and antifreeze. Polyethylene is estimated to account for more than half of global ethylene demand and is used to make packaging, trash can liners, as well as coating paper and cardboard.

The new ethylene contracts will trade alongside ICE’s existing Gulf Coast ethylene contract, the Ethylene, OPIS PCW Mont Belvieu future (ICE: ETH), and the contracts which hedge the feedstocks to make ethylene including the ICE Ethane, OPIS Mt. Belvieu Non-TET future and option contracts (ICE: ETE).

In addition, ICE plans to launch its first Asia Propylene contracts on January 10^th, which will be the Propylene ICIS CFR NE Asia Future and the Propylene ICIS CFR SE Asia future. Propylene is the raw material to produce polypropylene, a widely produced commodity plastic, with applications in many household items, clothing, and other consumer products.

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