Soybean from Dalian Commodity Exchange/DCE had been previously explained in the articles “what are soybean futures” and “6 things you need to know about soybean futures”. However, with the variations of soybean futures contracts from DCE as No.1 Soybeans, No.2 Soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil, it can be hard to decide which contract is worth trading.
Additionally, CSRC has also officially announced that all the Soybean products listed above will be released as Internationalized Products, starting from December 26, 2022.
Hence, this article will clarify the trading contract specifications of the product and feature some insights from Orient Futures to help traders decide on the best choice of action.
Soybean No.1
Soybean No.1 is one of the first futures to be found on the product list and the futures prices contracts for DCE are available here. Based on last week’s announcements, No 1 soybean futures closed higher on Thursday in daytime trading at the Dalian Commodity Exchange. Due to the dominant market share of Soybean No.1, it is usually taken as a representative of the soybean market as well as the varying soybean products.
The Soybean no.1 futures contract has the following specifications:
The contract size for Soybean no.1 Futures has a minimum price fluctuation of CNY1/metric ton with a minimum trading margin of 5% of the contract value. As a physical delivery good, the last delivery day is on the 13th trading day of the delivery month.
Contract months are January, March, May, July, September, and November.
Trading Hours are from Monday to Friday, at these trading hours:
9:00 am – 11:30 am / 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm (T-session)
Ticker Symbol: A
The position limit for Soybean no.1 options is 15,000 lots.
Soybean no.2
DCE’S soybean no.2 is for GMO (genetically modified organism) soybeans, which are primarily imports from overseas. Though it is less popular as compared to Soybean No.1, the futures contract for the product is still crucial for price discovery mechanisms.
The Soybean no.2 futures have the following specifications:
The contract size for Soybean no.2 Futures has a minimum price fluctuation of CNY1/metric ton with a minimum trading margin of 5% of the contract value. As a physical delivery good, the last delivery day is on the 13th trading day of the delivery month.
Contract months are January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
Trading Hours are from Monday to Friday, at these trading hours:
9:00 am – 11:30 am / 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm (T-session)
Sugar Futures symbol: B
The position limit for Soybean no.1 options is 20,000 lots.
Soybean Oil
In China, Soybean Oil are majority extracted from Argentina and Brazil imports. Statistical graphs that track the recent values and historical series of the products can be found here.
The Soybean oil has the following specifications:
The contract size for soybean oil futures has a minimum price fluctuation of 2 CNY/metric ton with a minimum trading margin of 5% of the contract value. As a physical delivery good, the last delivery day is on the 13th trading day of the delivery month.
Contract months are January, March, May, July, August, September, November, and December.
Trading Hours are from Monday to Friday, at these trading hours:
9:00 am – 11:30 am / 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm (T-session)
Sugar Futures symbol: Y
Soybean meal
Soybean meal refers to soybean meal used as an ingredient for animal feed and obtained after pre-pressing solvent extraction or direct solvent extraction of oil from the soybean.
The Soybean meal futures contract has the following specifications:
The contract size for Soybean Meal Futures has a minimum price fluctuation of 0.5 CNY/metric ton with a minimum trading margin of 5% of the contract value. As a physical delivery good, the last delivery day is on the 13th trading day of the delivery month.
Contract months are January, March, May, July, August, September, November, and December.
Trading Hours are from Monday to Friday, at these trading hours:
9:00 am – 11:30 am / 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm (T-session)
Sugar Futures symbol: M
Trading Soybean futures with Orient Futures Singapore
Trading any of the soybean futures with Orient Futures Singapore will be beneficial as the firm is an overseas intermediary of Dalian Commodity Exchange.
Currently, the company also supports various trading strategy of institutional traders through the provision of trading platforms.
Otherwise, to inform all clients and customers about the latest market updates, our parent company, Orient Futures Shanghai, and Orient Securities also work together to gather information, conduct market research, and develop reports for our clients.
The types of market research and qualitative research stretch across the industry from infrastructure to commodities and trade bonds allowing institutional traders to choose their target market.
An excerpt from the market research is also provided in the following segment.
Market Research Report
16.09.2022
DCE soybean meal active futures saw a sharp rise in prices early in September when USDA’s report revised down American soybean output, the prices then fluctuated for the rest of the week.
In the week ending on Sep 16, the active contract of DCE soybean meal rose over 4% and settled at the price of 3,992 yuan/ton. The open interest added 57,796 lots than the previous week and the total weekly volume decreased 19.46% to 2,930,822 lots with a weekly turnover of 117.89 billion yuan.
Market News
In relation to the above research and statistics, other documents have also calculated and developed a set of methodical studies to determine the relationship between DCE’s soybean futures and CBOT’S futures soybean. Some of the results and findings include the signs that “conditions for arbitrage existed” as well as the valid “relationship between DCE and CBOT soybean”. More information about the studies can be found in the online library here.
In November, it is also reported by seeking alpha that soybean futures reached their highest price since 2014 and remains in a bullish trend, however, this record high was broken last week when U.S soybean futures fell about 2% on Wednesday, anchored by a profit-taking plunge in soyoil futures and outlooks for beneficial rains in Brazil, as reported by financial post.
Similarly, Trading Economics has recorded that soybean futures edged down to $14.2 per bushel in the third week of November, tracking a retreat in soyoil futures and the crude market on concerns about demand from top consumer China.
From China, the Soybean bounced in mid-November from the loosening of curbs, “which cheered markets as experts cautioned that reopening probably remained a long way off.”
Start Trading With Orient Futures Singapore
Being an Overseas Intermediary of Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE), when foreign clients participate in internationalised futures contracts in these Chinese markets with us, they have direct access to trading, clearing, and settlement. Our parent company, Shanghai Orient Futures, is the largest broker in terms of aggregated volume across the five regulated exchanges in China.
Orient Futures Singapore also currently holds memberships at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Asia Pacific Exchange (APEX), and ICE Futures Singapore (ICE SG).
We provide premium customer service at an affordable cost to all our clients. Our team will be there for you 24 hours on trading days to provide a one-stop portal for all your trades, with simple processes and an intuitive user interface that has low or near-to-zero latency.
