CME Group to List Hardwood Pulp Index Futures and Options

by Chicago Mercantile Exchange 02 Dec 15:54

CHICAGO, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CME Group, the world’s largest and
most diverse derivatives exchange, announced today that hardwood pulp index
futures and options on futures will be listed exclusively on CME Globex®,
the exchange’s electronic trading platform, scheduled to begin trading
January 12, 2009. The hardwood pulp products will be a complement to the
softwood pulp index futures contracts launched in September 2007.

The cash-settled hardwood pulp futures and options contracts will be based on
the PIX BHKP Europe Index™ by FOEX Indexes Ltd. FOEX is a private
Finland-based independent company that specializes in providing audited,
trademarked registered pulp and paper price indexes.

“Customers requested this new contract to use as another tool to hedge risk.
Since the new hardwood pulp contract will follow suit with the current
softwood pulp contract and settle to a FOEX Index, the industry standard for
the global forest products industry, market users will have additional
opportunities and flexibility in their trading,” said John Harangody, CME
Group Director of Commodity Products.

The CME Group Hardwood Pulp futures contracts, to be listed under the ticker
symbol HWP, are based on the prices for the bleached hardwood kraft pulp
(BHKP) index. Like the northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, or NBSKP
contract, the BHKP contract size is 20 (metric) tonnes with a tick size of
$10 per contract ($0.50 per tonne). Trading hours will be from 5 p.m. Sunday
Chicago time through 4:00 p.m. Friday with a daily one hour trading pause.
The expiring contract closes at noon on the last trading day.

For more information on the CME Group BHKP and the NBSKP wood pulp contracts,
please go to http://www.cmegroup.com/pulp or for more information on FOEX,
please go to http://www.foex.fi/.

CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com/) is the world’s largest and most diverse
derivatives exchange. Building on the heritage of CME, CBOT and NYMEX, CME
Group serves the risk management needs of customers around the globe. As an
international marketplace, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together on
the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on trading floors in Chicago
and New York. By acting as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every
buyer, CME Clearing virtually eliminates counterparty credit risk. CME
Clearing also offers $7 billion in financial safeguards to help mitigate
systemic risk, providing the security and confidence market participants need
to operate, invest and grow. CME Group offers the widest range of benchmark
products available across all major asset classes, including futures and
options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy,
agricultural commodities, metals, and alternative investment products such as
weather and real estate. CME Group is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol
“CME.”

The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex and
E-mini, are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago
Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.
NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange, and ClearPort are trademarks of New York
Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further
information about CME Group and its products can be found at
http://www.cmegroup.com/.

CME-G

SOURCE: CME Group

CONTACT: Media, Mary Haffenberg, +1-312-930-3435, or Allan Schoenberg,
+1-312-930-8189, news@cmegroup.com, or Investors, John Peschier,
+1-312-930-8491, all for CME Group

Web site: http://www.cmegroup.com/
http://www.cmegroup.mediaroom.com/