New Hong-Kong-Based Commodity Exchange To Debut With Gold Contract

Mainland Chinese state-owned companies and a Russian billionaire have put together a new commodity futures exchange in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx.) The first contract set to debut is for gold.

“Our new platform will offer Asia a bigger say in setting global commodity prices,” said Barry Cheung, chairman of HKMEx.

After gold futures, the exchange plans to introduce other products including precious and base metals, energy, agriculture and commodity indices.

There are gold exchanges in mainland China already, but they're closed to international dealers. The HKMEx won't have that restriction. Gold was chosen because Hong Kong already has a large physical gold market, and it's an important port for bringing gold into the rest of mainland China. The trading day will be an unusually long 16 hours.


All I can say is, it's about time. It'll be interesting to see what the gold-is-manipulated crew makes of it.