The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre is moving ahead with plans to start plastics futures trading. After detailed work by its advisory committee, the centre’s Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) will now proceed with four plastics futures contracts, although no launch date has been announced.

In January, DGCX said it was considering HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE and PET, but PET has now been replaced by polypropylene in its launch plans .

Also, DGCX is now planning to divide the Asian region into two, North East Asia and South East Asia, for delivery against the contracts. The Middle East will be the third regional contract and other regions will be considered at a later date.

The exchange’s advisory committee is currently finalising the details of the various contracts. The plastics division at DMCC carried out a recent study into the industry’s need for futures trading based in the Middle East.

James Bernard, associate director of commodities at DMCC, said there had been “enormous interest from the industry” on its plastics futures plans. It had been “extremely encouraged by the response and support from the petrochemical and plastics industry as a whole and from closely associated financial establishments,” he said.

DMCC chief executive, David Rutledge, said: “Over the next four to five years, the region is forecast to see huge volumes coming on line, and it is increasingly becoming the preferred location of international polymer production and conversion.”

* The relaunch of PP and LLDPE futures trading by the London Metal Exchange on 25 June is examined in a special supplement from PRW, EPN and APN, sponsored by the LME.