By approval of State Council, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) ratified that Shanghai Futures Exchange list gold futures contracts.

Gold futures will be the fourth futures product approved by CSRC of listing this year in mainland China. The other three were zinc futures, rapeseed oil futures and LLDPE futures.

China is one of the major gold producing and consuming economies in the world. In 2006 the domestic production was 240.08 tons, 7.15% higher year on year, which ranked the third largest globally. The consumption has also seen a rapid growth. In 2006, 269.3 tons of gold was consumed by the manufacturing sector and that accounted for 9.23% of the world’s total.

With the social and economic development, gold investment activities are robust in the world. As a monetary reserve and a commodity, gold prices have picked up and fluctuated strongly for the recent years. That puts the producers, consumers, financial institutions and investors in an urgent need for gold futures to help them discover the price and hedge against risks.

Shanghai Futures Exchange has completed all the preparation and is about to start the trading soon.