SGX cleared record iron ore volume in January 2013

That's 18.2 million metric tonnes.

In a release, Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced that the cleared volume for its Iron Ore swap and options contracts reached a record high of 18.2 million metric tonnes (36,365 lots) in January 2013. This is 145,500 metric tonnes (291 lots) higher than the previous record set in September 2012. Open interest also reached a record high of 18.7 million metric tonnes (37,338 lots) on 20 February 2013.

The SGX iron ore options contract launched in September 2012 continues to gain support from participants. The market share of iron ore options cleared on SGX rose to 57% in January 2013.

"This success is possible only with the support of the SGX AsiaClear OTC Inter-Dealer Brokers (IDB) and General Clearing Members (GCM)," said SGX.

It named the top OTC GCMs as J.P. Morgan Securities Singapore Pte Ltd (1st), DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore) Pte Ltd (2nd) and Newedge Financial Singapore Pte Ltd (3rd).

Meanwhile, the top Iron Ore IDBs were Freight Investor Services Ltd (1st), GFI Group Pte Ltd (2nd) and SSY Futures Ltd (3rd).

For a complete list of awardees, please refer to the SGX website release.