The Shanghai Futures Exchange on Thursday officially listed options contracts for hot-rolled coil, stainless steel, and low-sulfur fuel oil upon approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
On their debut day, the three new commodity options saw a total of 236 contracts listed for trading. This included 48 contracts for hot-rolled coil options, 50 for stainless steel options, and 138 for low-sulfur fuel oil options.
China is the world's largest consumer of hot-rolled coil and stainless steel, as well as a major consumption market for low-sulfur fuel oil in the Asia-Pacific region.
The introduction of these commodity options will provide related enterprises with a broader array of tools and strategies to manage risks and ensure steady operations, according to analysts.
"China's futures and options product system has been further enriched, now offering comprehensive coverage across the major sectors of non-ferrous metals, ferrous metals, precious metals, and energy and chemicals. This enables investors to combine futures and options to separately manage directional price risks and price volatility risks, while allowing enterprises to manage the price risks they face with greater precision," said Huang Wei, director of the futures and derivatives department at the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
Shanghai Futures Exchange launches trading for hot-rolled coil, stainless steel, low-sulfur fuel oil
China has continued to strengthen its capacity to ensure energy and resource security, according to the Global Mining Development Report 2026 released by the China Geological Survey under the Ministry of Natural Resources on Friday.
The report indicates that since China launched a new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration in 2021, the exploration of strategic emerging minerals has achieved leapfrog development, and the country's capacity for independent resource supply has been significantly enhanced.
According to the report, China's new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration has produced remarkable results, with mineral resource reserves growing substantially. China currently ranks the first in the world in reserves of 14 minerals and has achieved three-dimensional expansion in oil and gas exploration, with deep-layer and deep-sea areas becoming new growth points.
Meanwhile, China's scale of mineral product production and smelting and processing remains the world's largest, and its leading position in the industrial chain has been continuously consolidated. In the smelting and processing sector in particular, the output of more than 30 metallurgical products ranks the first in the world, and the output of 17 mineral products accounts for about 50 percent of global mineral product output. This signifies that China is not only a major mineral resource producer, but also a supply leader and important driver in the global smelting and processing industry.
In addition, the scale of China's mining economy and its role in driving employment have continued to strengthen, providing strong support for socioeconomic development. As of April 2026, China had boasted 12,600 exploration rights and 30,400 mining rights, along with 55,000 mining enterprises and 834,000 smelting and processing enterprises. The mining industry and its related sectors have become an important pillar of regional economic development and people's livelihoods and employment.
"China has actively contributed its strength to global mining transformation. China has signed memorandums of understanding on geological and mining cooperation with more than 70 other countries, and technologies and equipment such as autonomous mining trucks, mining large models, and tailings resource recovery have been deployed globally," said Zou Xiehua, chief drafter of the Global Mining Development Report 2026.
China continues to strengthen energy, resource security capacity: global mining report
