On the morning of Mar. 20th, the official launch of “Yangshan price”, the nation’s inaugural price index of spot goods in a bonded area, together with its first indicator, “Yangshan copper premium”, published on authoritative third-party terminals at home and abroad, was another initiative taken by Shanghai Free Trade Zones to develop Yangshan Bonded Port Area into a bulk commodity collection and distribution platform.

It is revealed that Yangshan copper premium manages to come out first since the port has presented concentrations of copper imports & exports, inventories as well as enterprises concerned. The premium refers to the benchmark trading price of refined copper brands (to be imported into Shanghai via Yangshan or Waigaoqiao after Customs declaration) in excess of London Metal Exchange (LME) copper settlement. The price information, mainly based on actual phone queries and deal making and collected by independent third parties, is translated into authoritative and reliable Yangshan copper premium through scientific and systematic calculation.

Through two years’ development, Yangshan Bonded Port Area has established itself as a logistics base for copper and other bulk commodities backed by industrial policies, and an attraction for a large number of flagship enterprises which have become the pivotal sources of price information and core users of Yangshan copper premium. So far, 63 bulk commodity flagship enterprises have moved into the port, with a registered capital of RMB 3.5 billion; so have most of the LME-designated warehouse operators including NEMS, GKE and C. Steinweg. CWT and Pacorini Toll have also come into operation by dint of third-party logistics and warehousing. In 2012, over USD 10 billion worth of copper cathode was imported from Shanghai Free Trade Zones, accounting for one-third of the nation’s total imports. Hence, the supply and demand of bonded copper in Shanghai has manifested to some extent that of copper in China, ensuring the authority of the premium and the broad-based targets of the price information.