Tehran, Iran, July 2
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Iran mercantile market is facing requests from India and Indonesia to start delivering bitumen, according to Hamed Soltaninejad, CEO of Iran Mercantile Exchange.
There are also requests for cooperation from East Asian and European markets, he told ILNA news agency July 2.
“We are planning to expand the future bitumen market and related futures exchanges, issue mercantile deposit certificate based on bitumen and launch bitumen mercantile funds,” he stated.
“We need foreign players in running a derivatives market, because some products, including bitumen, produced in Iran have foreign customers.”
Some $201 million worth bitumen was sold at the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) during the first two months of the current fiscal year that started March 20.
The IME trades agricultural, industrial and petrochemical products on the spot and futures markets. It originally started as the main domestic and regional market but has now grown to become the Middle East’s largest and highest value commodities market.