A ceremony is held at the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) to mark the listing of the alumina futures in east China's Shanghai, June 19, 2023. The world's first alumina futures contracts with physical delivery have been officially listed for trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) on Monday. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

SHANGHAI, June 19 (Xinhua) -- The world's first alumina futures contracts with physical delivery have been officially listed for trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) on Monday.

A total of eight contracts were traded on the futures exchange, with the benchmark price at 2,665 yuan (about 374.3 U.S. dollars) per tonne, according to the futures exchange.

Glencore, a global diversified natural resource company, is the buyer in the first transaction of the main contract on the first day of alumina's listing, with China Aluminum International Trading Group Co., Ltd. serving as the seller of the deal.

China is the world's top producer and consumer of alumina, or aluminum oxide, which is an essential raw material of the aluminium industry. About 95 percent of the alumina are used in electrolytic aluminum smelting and production, and the rest are used for ceramics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and other areas.

Accounting for over half of global production, China produced 81.86 million tonnes of alumina last year, according to the futures exchange.

In 2022, China imported 2.02 million tonnes of alumina from countries including Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, while exporting 1 million tonnes of such products, said the SHFE citing data from the customs authority.

The prices of alumina in the Chinese market have experienced increasing volatility over the last decade, mainly due to weak global economic recovery, changes in supply and demand, and the high fluctuations of other commodities, said the SHFE.

The listing of alumina futures will serve the high-quality development of the aluminum industry and will be an effective tool for enterprises to better manage risks, said the futures exchange in a handbook.