IME Trade Volume Up 11% in June-July

More than 4.02 million tons of goods worth 374 trillion rials ($1.5 billion) were traded at the Iran Mercantile Exchange in the last calendar month to July 21.
The volume of deals increased 11% from 3.6 million tons logged in the previous month. In value terms, however, trade declined 15% compared to the earlier month when total transactions reached 442 trillion rials ($1.8b).
IME is a commodities exchange in Tehran founded in 2006 to host deals in farm, industrial and petrochemical products in the spot and futures markets.
Trade in the said month mostly included industrial and mineral products weighing 2.55 million tons worth 199 trillion rials ($820 million), according to the IME news agency imereport.ir.
Steel as usual topped the list with 821,176 tons followed by 280,500 tons iron ore and 252,000 tons cement. Other big items were 15,785 tons copper, 21,495 tons aluminum, 47,500 tons sponge iron, 107,785 tons zinc,490  tons molybdenum concentrate, 400 tons coke, 63 tons precious metals concentrate and 34 kilograms of gold ingot.
On the petrochemical and petroleum floor, 1.449 million tons worth 172 trillion rials ($700m) were sold to domestic and foreign buyers.
The IME said trade in this category included 349,831 tons of bitumen, 320, 321 tons polymer products, 125,773 tons petrochemicals, 15,908 tons base oil and 492,350 tons vacuum bottom. Other items were 27,025 tons of sulfur, 450 tons argon, 113,000 tons lube cut and 1,030 tons moisture insulation materials.
The IME Side Market handled 16,605 tons of goods in the month.

Derivatives  

In the IME derivative market, more than 284,000 futures contracts changed hand valued at 4.778 trillion rials ($19.5m). Underlying assets of the futures were agriculture products, namely saffron, pistachio, cumin and silver.
Future deals included 206,618 “Negin Saffron” contracts worth  2.94 trillion rials ($12m).  Negin is the highest quality saffron produced in Iran.
Other derivative deals included “Poushal Saffron” worth 22.17 billion rials, pistachio futures 53 billion rials, cumin futures 23.13 billion rials and silver futures worth 1.574 trillion rials.
A futures contract is a legal agreement to buy or sell a particular commodity asset, or security at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. Futures are standardized for quality and quantity to facilitate trading on a futures exchange.
Traders exchanged more than 7.26 million commodity-linked certificates of deposit (CD) at the IME during the month valued at 4.243 trillion rials ($17.5m).  The CDs were backed by gold coins, saffron, pistachio, raisin and cumin.
With 3.742 trillion rials ($15.5m) the gold-based CD topped the list in value terms.  Investors exchanged 3.544 million gold CDs in the period, 3.7 million saffron CDs, 16,566 pistachio CDs, 4,879 cumin CDs and 269 raisin CDs.   
Commodity CD is a security indicating ownership of the holder on a particular amount of a commodity supported by standard warehouse receipt issued by the warehouses certified by the Securities and Exchange Organization, the capital market regulator.
Selling a CD in the primary market means selling the stored or deposited commodity by the owner, and buying it means buying of such commodity. CDs securitize a company’s product inventory and offer buyers easy ownership of goods without the usual hassles of storage and insurance.
The mercantile exchange is gaining traction as more goods and commodities produced by domestic companies join. Feasibility studies are underway to also offer autos.
There are plans to fund projects in the key transportation and housing sector. Trade in goods and commodities via the IME doubled in value last fiscal year (ended March). It reached 3,509.2 trillion rials ($14.8b) up 108% compared to the year before, which was the highest annual growth since 2006.