UNITED STATES October 14 2015 12:22 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): CME Group has announced the launch of a new global physically delivered Lead futures contract with delivery locations available in the U.S. and Europe. This new contract will be available for customer trading as of 23 November, 2015, pending all relevant regulatory review periods.

“The introduction of this new Lead futures contract is another example of how we're working closely with customers across the commodities value chain to provide innovative solutions they can use to hedge volatile industrial metals prices,” said Derek Sammann, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Commodities and Options Products, CME Group. 

“This new contract builds on CME Group's already broad array of global benchmark metals products and our growing base metals offering. We're confident Lead futures will become a price reference for global lead industry participants and provide them with the transparency they need to more effectively manage their price risk,” Sammann added. 

This new Lead futures contract will build on CME Group's growing suite of physically and financially settled base metals products, including Zinc futures and Aluminium European Premium futures, which were introduced earlier in 2015.

“The addition of Lead futures to CME Group's expanding base metals portfolio will provide our industrial metals clients with capital efficiencies at a time when they are looking to mitigate risk in uncertain markets,” said Michael Camacho, Head of Global Commodities at JPMorgan Chase & Co. "This new risk-management tool should be a welcome development for all market participants in the base metals industry."

This contract is expected to provide greater transparency and price discovery for market participants around the globe. Lead futures will be priced in U.S. dollars and will represent 25 metric tons of physical material, beginning with the February 2016 listed month.