Asia LNG MOC trading activity hits all-time high in Oct

Trading activity in the Asia LNG physical and derivatives Platts Market on Close assessment process reached a record high in October, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.

The physical Platts MOC assessment process in October saw a total of 180 bids, offers and trades, with the number of trades hitting an all-time high.

About 15 trades were reported by 10 entities in October as of Oct. 31, making up half of all trades reported in 2023.

Around 975,000 mt of LNG physical cargoes were traded, the highest since September 2021 when 715,000 mt were traded, according to S&P Global data.

Bids, offers and trades for physical cargoes linked to the Platts JKM index in the MOC process made up 110 orders (61.11%) out of a total of 180.

The derivatives MOC in October recorded the highest ever number of bids, offers and trades reported at 880. The previous high was recorded in August at 817.

A total of 177 trades of 250,000 MMBtu each were reported by 14 entities, surpassing the previous high of 161 trades in August.

A rise in trading liquidity was observed in the futures market as well.

LNG futures traded volumes cleared on financial exchanges in October recorded the highest monthly volume in 2023 at 75,104 lots, surpassing the previous monthly high of 66,884 lots in May, according to exchange and broker data.