BEIJING (Reuters) -China's two key commodity exchanges will halve their hedging fees for listed products to lower users' costs and increase participation in the world's biggest consumer of commodities.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) said it will halve transaction fees for hedging activities on the products listed on the exchange and its Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE).
There are in total 23 futures and nine options products on both exchanges, including precious metals, industrial metals and energy.
Current rates for hedging transactions on the INE vary from 0.005% to 0.025% for copper, fuel oil, rubber. For crude oil futures, the rate is 10 yuan ($1.38) per lot (1,000 barrels), the exchange said.
The aim is to cut costs and improve efficiency, so that the futures market can better serve the real industry, SHFE said in a separate post on its WeChat account.
The SHFE also offered some discounts in September for hedging fees.
China's Dalian Commodity Exchange, where some key agricultural products are traded, also said it will halve trading fees for all hedging transactions from Aug. 1.
($1 = 7.2618 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Albee Zhang, Ethan Wang and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by David Goodman and Arun Koyyur)
