Frequently Asked Questions: South American Soybean futures

CME Group is launching the FOB Santos Soybeans Financially Settled (Platts) futures contract – abbreviated as South American Soybean futures – on the CBOT exchange on September 21.

The contract size is 136 tons and quoted in US dollar and cents per ton.  The contract tick size is $0.20 per ton (a tick value of $27.20 per contract). The commodity code is SAS.

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The South American Soybean futures contract is listed on the CBOT and cleared by CME Clearing in the United States. The regulator is the CFTC.

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The futures contract is based on SOYBEX FOB Santos, Brazil price assessment published by Platts each business day. The Platts code for the assessment is SYBBB000.

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The price assessment reflects the following characteristics:

Origin and quality: Brazilian-origin soybean specification with oil content of 18.5% and a standard protein level of 34.5%; other qualities may be considered, but would be normalized back to the reference quality.

Cargo size: Assessment reflects a typical cargo size of 60,000 mt, +/- 10% operational tolerance.

Delivery location: FOB Santos, Brazil

Loading period: Assessment reflects product loading one calendar month forward. This will roll to the next month on the first publication day after the 15th of the current month. For example, from July 16-August 15, Platts will assess parcels loading over September, while from August 16-September 15, Platts will assess parcels loading over October.

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The final settlement of South American Soybean futures is the arithmetic average of the “SOYBEX FOB Santos” price assessment published by Platts during the contract settlement period rounded to the nearest $0.01.

The settlement period for a specific contract month starts on and includes the 16th calendar day in the second month prior to the contract month, and extends to and include the 15th calendar day in the month prior to the contract month.

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CME Group will provide daily settlement prices for listed South American Soybean futures months with open interest. The settlements will be determined using CME Globex settlement procedures.

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Yes, there are price limits on CME Globex. The price limits will be set at $40 per MT at launch and follow the same biannual price limit update methodology as the other CBOT Grain and Oilseed products.

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The futures contract is available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and for submission for clearing via CME ClearPort.

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Subject to certain requirements met, such as minimum size, the futures contact can be privately negotiated via brokers as a block trade and submitted into CME ClearPort for clearing.

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There are minimum quantity and reporting time requirements. The minimum block trade size is five contracts, and trades need to be reported by the broker within 15 minutes of execution.

Block trade participants need to be classified as Eligible Contract Participants (ECP) to engage in block trades. The definition of an ECP can be found in section 1a(18) of the Commodity Exchange Act.

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Sunday: Opens 5:00 p.m.
Monday – Friday: Closes each day at 5:45 p.m.
Monday – Thursday: Opens each day at 6 p.m.

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All transactions on CME Globex and on ClearPort through 4:00 p.m. CT will be considered for that trade date.

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South American Soybean futures will have  spot month position limits of 3,000 contracts from March through July, and 1,000 contracts from August through February. Single-and all-month accountability levels will be set at 4,000 contracts.

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Contracts will be listed for January, February, March, May, July, August, September, and November with 11 contracts listed at any time.

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Yes, you can apply for a hedge exemption. Market participants may be eligible to receive an exemption from position limits in accordance with Rule 559 based on having bona fide hedging positions (as defined by CFTC Regulation 1.3(z), 17 CFR 1.3(z)), risk management positions and/or arbitrage and spread positions.

To obtain an exemption application or for further information on the exemption process, contact us at Hedgeprogram@cmegroup.com.

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Contact your clearing member or sas@cmegroup.com to get more information on getting set-up to trade the contract on CME Globex and/or as a block on CME Clearport. Details are also available at cmegroup.com/sa-soybeans.

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Like the South American Soybean futures contract listed at CME Group, the B3 contract will be financially settled to the FOB Santos, Brazil Soybean price assessment published by Platts each business day. Their contract will be listed and cleared by B3.  It will not be fungible with the CME Group contract.

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