'Chinese oil price perfectly timed'

amsterdam - The first future in yuan for crude oil, which put China on the market as an alternative to the image-determining Brent and WTI futures contracts on Monday, does not threaten it, but it mainly highlights the rapid opening up of the market for foreign companies. 'The timing is perfect,' says economist Hans van Cleef (ABN Amro), referring to the trade dispute between the US and China.

The trade that is open to foreign traders started with almost 30 million barrels optimistically in the first half hour. Twenty companies had registered last week. Among them big traders like Glencore and Trafigura.

At opening, the price was 440 yuan per barrel, where the forward delivery contract in September was set at 416 yuan. The futureprijs was more than 5% higher than that of Brent in London. Trade closed at 429.9 yuan per barrel.

The oil trade is still dominated by dollar transactions. From now on, traders can conclude their contracts in yuan for the future supply of crude oil via the Shanghai International Energy Exchange. The futures have been in preparation for twenty years. Foreign parties were long deterred by the rule that forced Beijing. This seems to have ended.