(Yicai) Dec. 16 -- The Guangzhou Futures Exchange, set up in 2021 with a focus on the green economy, will introduce polysilicon futures and options next week, allowing China’s solar industry to hedge against price volatility and strengthen its global competitiveness.

Polysilicon futures contracts will be listed on Dec. 26 and options contracts the next day, the bourse announced on Dec. 13. These will be the third set of futures and options products launched by the GFEX, following industrial silicon and lithium carbonate, which began trading in December 2022 and July last year.

Industrial silicon futures and options have been trading smoothly for nearly two years, and the launch of polysilicon products will provide more precisely tailored tools for the photovoltaic industry supply chain, helping to consolidate China’s competitive advantages in the global PV sector, an industry insider told Yicai.

The first batch of seven polysilicon futures and related options will have minimum trading volumes of three tons. The minimum price fluctuation, or tick size, for the futures contracts will be CNY5 (69 US cents) per ton, while the smallest change in the price paid for the options contracts will be CNY1 per ton.

Polysilicon prices in China have fluctuated sharply in recent years as a result of severe supply-demand imbalances. Annual price volatility from 2021 to last year reached 227 percent, 63 percent, and 280 percent, respectively. The average spot price has been around CNY40,000 (USD5,490) per ton this year, having fallen about 40 percent.

Polysilicon is the main raw material used for solar cells and chip substrates. The global production reached 1.6 million tons last year, with China contributing 92 percent, according to the Silicon Industry of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione