CHICAGO, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that it will launch an options contract on its North European Hot-Rolled Coil Steel (Argus) futures on May 2, pending regulatory review.

"Given price volatility and uncertainty across the global steel supply chain, we are seeing a growing demand for European HRC Steel options to help our clients more precisely manage their risk," said Jin Chang, Managing Director and Global Head of Metals at CME Group. "Open interest in our European HRC Steel futures has surpassed 42,000 metric tons as participation continues to grow across our entire ferrous metals complex. We look forward to introducing options, which should complement our clients' existing strategies and help them minimize risk."  

CME Group Steel futures products have been growing steadily since launch. 2021 was the fifth consecutive year of growth for U.S. HRC Steel futures, reaching open interest as high as over 40,000 contracts, equivalent to over 800,000 metric tons, and average daily trading volume hitting a record 1,100 contracts.

The global appeal of CME Group's around-the-clock liquidity continues to attract new users, with total metals options volume during non-U.S. hours reaching 21% of total volume last year.

North European HRC Steel options will be cash settled and based on a monthly average price, and will be listed by and subject to the rules of COMEX. For more information, please visit here. 

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec and EBS are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD and EBS Group LTD, respectively. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  

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SOURCE CME Group