China's first iron ore spot trading platform was officially launched on May 8th, 2012, with transaction of 165,000 tons after a few minutes opening last morning.
Most of the steel producers and miners joined this platform to see trading cost down in the long term. According to the announcement from Angang Steel, there are 30% of its iron ore trading on the platform.
This platform aims to provide a positive way to level iron ore prices, and create a fair and transparent trading environment for spot iron ore.
According to Xu Xu, chairman of China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, trading volumes of 50 million tons to 100 million tons were expected to achieved on this platform by the end of this year, acquiring 7%~14% of China's annual imports of iron ore.
There are 152 companies already registered to be its member, including 132 from domestic and 30 from oversea