Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a notice approving the registration of coking coal options on the Dalian Commodity Exchange. At the same time, the Dalian Commodity Exchange issued a notice on the listing and trading of coking coal option contracts and related matters, clarifying the listing and trading time, trading contracts, and benchmark prices of coking coal options.

It is understood that coking coal is the core basic raw material for the steel industry and coal chemical industry. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coking coal. In 2024, China's main coking coal production will be 165 million tons, accounting for 53% of global production; The consumption is 206 million tons, accounting for 63% of the global consumption.

In order to effectively manage the risk of price fluctuations in the service industry, the Dalian Commodity Exchange listed coking coal futures in 2013. Since its listing, the coking coal futures market has operated smoothly, continuously expanded in scale, effectively utilized its functions, and steadily increased its price influence. More and more industrial enterprises are using coking coal futures for hedging. In the first 11 months of 2025, the daily average trading volume of coking coal futures was 1.04 million lots, and the daily average position was 670,000 lots. The correlation between futures and spot prices reached 97%, significantly enhancing the ability to serve the real economy and laying a solid foundation for the launch of coking coal options.

In recent years, coking coal has been affected by multiple factors such as supply and demand, policies, etc., resulting in severe price fluctuations. Industrial enterprises have an increasingly strong demand for using derivative tools to carry out refined risk management. After the listing of coking coal options, it will provide a more comprehensive risk management tool system covering steel raw materials and fuels for related industries, along with corresponding coking coal futures, coke futures, and iron ore futures and options. This will better meet the refined and diversified risk management needs of industrial chain enterprises, and is of great significance for ensuring the stable supply of national strategic resources and serving the high-quality development of the real economy.

According to the notice, in terms of trading time, the coking coal option will be put up for auction from 8:55-9:00 am on January 16, 2026, and will be listed for trading at 9:00 am. On the evening of January 16th, coking coal options and underlying futures simultaneously conducted night trading.

In terms of handling fees and position limits, the handling fee for coking coal option trading is 0.5 yuan/lot, the handling fee for hedging trading is halved, and the exercise and performance handling fee is the same as the trading handling fee; The position limit is 8000 lots. In addition, the Dalian Commodity Exchange also specified in the notice the listing benchmark price, trading instructions, exercise and performance, portfolio margin, related fees, market maker system, and contract inquiry for coking coal options.

In terms of contract rule design, the design ideas of coking coal options are basically the same as those of listed option contracts on the Dalian Stock Exchange, with contract types divided into call options and put options; The minimum change price is 0.1 yuan/ton, which is 1/5 of the minimum change price of the underlying futures contract, consistent with iron ore options; The exercise price covers the range corresponding to 1.5 times the limit up or limit down of the underlying futures contract; The trading unit, quotation unit, contract month, and trading time are all the same as the underlying futures contract. At the same time, the Dalian Commodity Exchange also follows the listing principle of "close proximity, distant distance", listing far month option contracts at twice the exercise price spacing based on the exercise price spacing of near month option contracts, in order to enhance the liquidity of near month option contracts and meet the needs of industry participation.

In the view of Shi Huimin, the head of the risk management department of Shanxi Huayuan Land Port Chain Technology Company, the launch of coking coal options marks the maturity of the risk management system of the coal coking steel industry chain, and is an important opportunity for enterprises to improve their risk control refinement level and promote modernization of governance capabilities. Coking coal options, with their "asymmetric" risk return characteristics, can help upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain enhance the flexibility and diversity of hedging, better align with business management goals, and also contribute to enhancing the resilience of the industry chain and supply chain.

Ji Xiaoyun, a black researcher at Green Dahua Futures, stated that after the listing of coking coal options, industrial enterprises can optimize their hedging strategies and form a "futures+options" combination to dynamically hedge against the coking coal spot exposure risks they face in their operations; On the other hand, by managing price volatility risks through coking coal options, companies can reduce capital occupation, increase profits through selling options, reduce risk management costs, and optimize capital utilization efficiency.

In the future, Dalian Commodity Exchange will work together with all parties in the market to prepare for the listing of coking coal options, ensure the smooth operation of coking coal options, strengthen market cultivation, and provide assistance for enterprises to make good use of option tools, better serving the high-quality development of the coal, coke and steel industry and the real economy.