Isramart : ECX Monthly Report And EUA & CER Volumes - December 2009

Isramart news:
2009 summary: Despite the disappointing lack of progress from COP 15, 2009 was another year of strong growth for the European carbon markets. Average daily volumes exceeded 20 Mt making a total of over 5.1 billion tons traded on ECX/ ICE, an increase of 80% over 2008. ECX appreciate the continued support of the members and clients throughout the world and look forward to working with you in 2010.

Dec’09 expiry & delivery: The December 2009 EUA and CER futures contracts expired on December 14th and saw record volumes taken to physical delivery. Over 134 Mt EUAs and 16 Mt CERs were transferred amongst market participants, a 28% increase over 2008. Year end open interest across all contracts stands at 548 Mt – up by 193 Mt from 2008. See graph 6 below.

Screen volumes: EUA screen trading volumes grew throughout the year and peaked in November as roll activity increased ahead of the expiry, with a daily average volume reaching 8,233 contracts. This compares to an average daily volume of 4,379 contracts from the previous November and represents an 88% increase. Total volumes in December were split in 58% on-exchange screen volumes and 42% cleared (EFP) volumes – see graph 5 below.

EUA/CER Swap: December also saw a significant upturn in EUA/CER swap transactions using the spread tool in WebICE.