On 22 November 2019, Qianhai Mercantile Exchange (QME) officially rolled out spot copper, the 5^th spot product following alumina, aluminium billets, aluminium rods, and copper rods.  QME is also planning to introduce regional copper cathode products in several major copper industry regions in Mainland China in the future.  On the first day of the launch, industrial customers completed the first copper cathode transaction via QME’s online e-trading system, producing the spot benchmark price of QME copper cathode based on real transactions in Shanghai.  Going forward, QME will dedicate to developing regional prices of QME copper cathode, in the hope that such prices could become major index figures/indicators/benchmarks for spot price setting of copper cathode applicable in the whole country.

Copper cathodes is a non-ferrous metal closely related to the national economy and widely used in various fields such as electrical, light industry, machinery manufacturing, construction industry and defence industry.  Among non-ferrous metals, copper cathode is second only to aluminium in terms of the volume of consumption in China.  The spot copper cathode launched on QME this time meet the qualification of No. 1 standard copper (Cu-CATH-2) under the international standard of GB/T467-2010 and the qualification of grade A copper (Cu-CATH-1) under the international standards of GB/T467-2010, BS-EN1978:1998 as well as ASTM-B115-10.  The place of delivery is Shanghai.  QME will continue to diversify product types to cater to market and customers’ needs while progressively expanding the scope of delivery to cover more consumption and production bases.

At present, copper cathode is traded under the spot quotation and trading model whereby a participant publishes and quotes information like the price and quantity of the copper cathode intended to be sold or purchased through QME’s e-trading system and enters into an electronic transaction contract with an eligible counterparty which accepts the offer, takes up the products for completing the deal with that participant and completes the settlement with the QME warehouse warrant.  The trading hours are 09:00 to 15:30 from Monday to Friday (except for national holidays and non-trading days as announced by QME).  The copper cathode launched this time are based on warehouse warrants and adopts the “online trading, offline settlement & online delivery” model which resembles the daily trading practices of physical enterprises and better accommodates the customers’ needs for spot trading and delivery.

QME is a commodity spot trading platform established by the HKEX Group in Qianhai, Shenzhen.  By leveraging the credibility and market’s recognition of HKEX, QME hopes to provide enterprises with modern supply chain infrastructure and services such as warehousing, delivery and settlement, thereby forming benchmark spot prices that can reflect the supply and demand fundamentals of the physical enterprises and further regulate the spot trading market for Mainland Chinese commodities, in turn supporting the development of the real economy.