LONDON, ENGLAND — CME Group launched Black Sea Sunflower Oil Financially Settled (Platts) futures (based on Sunflower Oil FOB Black Sea Ukraine). It will begin trading Aug. 26, pending all relevant regulatory review periods.

The contract is being introduced after a consultation with the industry and in response to client demand for risk management tools to manage price volatility in the global sunflower oil market. It follows the launch of CME Group's financially settled Black Sea Wheat and Black Sea Corn contracts, which have traded over 300,000 contracts since launch with a combined open interest of 40,000 contracts.

"CME Group edible oil futures have been an integral part of the physical oilseed industry, facilitating price discovery and risk transfer for merchants, crushers, processors, traders and industrial consumers around the globe," said Tim Andriesen, managing director, Agricultural Products, CME Group. "The addition of Black Sea sunflower oil to our soybean oil and Malaysian crude palm oil futures contracts makes CME the global destination of choice for customers hedging and risk management needs in the edible oil markets."

Black Sea Sunflower Oil Financially Settled (Platts) futures will be financially settled based on the "Sunflower Oil FOB Black Sea Ukraine" price assessment published by S&P Global Platts each business day. The futures will be quoted in U.S. dollars and cents per tonne and have a contract size of 25 tonnes. The first listed month will be the November 2019 contract, with a further 11 consecutive months available for trading - out to October 2020.

"We are pleased that the CME Group and market participants recognize the important role our independent sunflower oil price assessment plays in creating price transparency, which in turn provides opportunities for the provision of risk management tools that bring greater efficiency to the global agriculture markets," said Ian Dudden, global content director, Metals and Agriculture at S&P Global Platts.

The new futures contract will be available for trading on CME Globex and CME ClearPort, and will be listed with and subject to the rules and regulation of CBOT.