Commodity exchange market surpasses ₽1.5 trillion

The structure of the commodity exchange market undergone minor changes. Petroleum products still account for the lion’s share of the market — 92%, exceeding ₽1.4 trillion. The second largest is the agricultural product market. Last year alone, it increased five-fold to ₽71.4 billion. There was a considerable growth in the timber and construction materials market: 4 million cubic meters of timber were sold on the exchange, amounting to more than ₽5.9 billion. Contrastingly, natural gas trades dropped by 15% to ₽21.9 billion.

However, market participants show persistent demand for the services of electronic marketplaces where they can not only look for new counterparties but also sell and buy raw materials and finished products. The Bank of Russia estimated the market capacity of OTC electronic trading in the B2B segment. The overall volume of commercial tenders was ₽9.8 trillion in 2022.

According to the conducted analysis, data on commercial trading in electronic marketplaces may be used as reference to calculate commodity indicators. That is why the Bank of Russia promote their voluntary input to the on-exchange trade system.

The regulator takes part in the inter-agency assessment of the commodity indicators’ calculation methods. The first wheat index of JSC National Mercantile Exchange (the NAMEX Wheat Index) was approved by the Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation. Moreover, the regulator prepared its expert opinion on the assessed methods for calculating exchange and OTC indices (for petroleum products (petrol, diesel, jet fuel), OTC indices for sugar and sunflower oil, and an exchange index for refined gold.

Find more details, including the Russian commodity indices map, in the Review of Exchange and OTC Commodity Markets in 2022 and 2023 Q1.