Time is not ripe for China to launch coke futures at present, industry insiders hold, despite the fact that Dalian Commodities Exchange has promulgated draft regulations governing coke futures contract and trading, delivery and risk management.

    China has started study on coke futures for years, but there is not yet a timetable for the debut.

    It is learned that China's coke output reached 330 million tons in 2007, and China accounts for about 50 percent of the world's total consumption of coke. Meanwhile, independent coking enterprises now account for over two-thirds of China's total coke output. Based on this, it is calculated that China's market scale of coke is about 800 billion yuan, bigger than any variety listed on the market.

    Meanwhile, debut of coke futures requires the market price of coke remains comparatively stable, otherwise the risk will increase.

    However, market price of coke in China has fluctuated violent in the past two years, and coke export price has also vibrated sharply.

    It is learned that Dalian Commodities Exchange has chosen metallurgical coke as coke futures target. Metallurgical coke is mainly used in metallurgical, chemical and other industries and for export. Of this, metallurgical industry accounts for about 82 percent of the total consumption.

    Dalian Commodities Exchange plans to choose North China as coke delivery place, and has preliminarily planned to construct warehouses in Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, and Tianjin.