The LME will announce one new plastics futures contract in the next few months

The London Metal Exchange plans to announce within the next two to three months which polymer it will add to the two plastics futures contracts currently traded. PET and PVC have both been studied by the exchange. Director of exchange development Neil Banks said: “Most observers see a bottle grade PET as the first one of the two to be announced. But no decision has been made yet.”

A proposal needs to be presented to the board of the LME, after which an announcement will be made. Banks would give no indication of when trading would start in the next polymer, saying that the announcement will include the launch date, material specification and other details. He said it has always been the LME’s strategy to add to the polypropylene and LLDPE futures that both started trading in May last year, but new polymers will be launched one at a time. “The performance of the PP and LLDPE contracts has given us the confidence to launch the next plastics contract,” said Banks.