Strong volatility and new market participants helped drive a record volume of 2.193m tonnes of coking coal futures cleared on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) this October, with inter-dealer brokerage SSY Futures maintaining its position as the leading broker for both swaps and options.

Open interest continues to climb, now at 3.18M tonnes out to Cal 23. SSY Futures has also seen a revival in the coking coal options market with Q1 135 calls trading here in October. These are the first options traded in the market since June 2019.

The market has seen a significant growth in volumes and participants with a range of coal producers, financial institutions and end users active as the physical coking coal market experienced price swings. Activity is growing from traders in Singapore along with the US, Europe, India, China and Japan.

The uncertainty around Chinese-Australian relations has impacted the seaborne coking coal market, leading to mixed sentiment and price fluctuations throughout October. This volatility led to more derivative participation, as companies sought to manage their exposure, subsequent price risk and to speculate against the physical market.