London based Baltic Exchange, LCH.Clearnet in Ship Futures Tie-up

UNITED KINGDOM June 23 2014 4:15 PM LONDON (Scrap Register): Baltic Exchange and clearing house LCH.Clearnet are in talks about a tie-up aimed at breathing new life into the loss-making Baltex dry bulk freight derivatives platform, the two groups said on Friday.

Baltex was launched by the Baltic Exchange in June 2011 as the first central electronic marketplace for freight forward agreements (FFAs), which enable investors to take positions on freight rates at a point in the future, but it has been little used by brokers who have preferred to trade FFAs by phone or on screens of their own to maximise their commission.