06/14/2001
Contract specifications include:
Trading Unit
Futures: 1,550 tons of coal.
Trading Hours
Open Outcry: 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Trading Months
Futures: 24 to 26 consecutive months to be listed on a quarterly schedule. As contracts expire, the 26th month will roll forward until it becomes the 23rd month. At that point, new 24th, 25th, and 26th month contracts will be added.
Price Quotations
U.S. dollars and cents per ton.
Minimum Price Fluctuation
$0.01 per ton. ($15.50 per contract).
Maximum Price Fluctuation
$12.00 per ton ($18,600 per contract) for all months. If any contract is traded, bid, or offered at the limit for five minutes, trading is halted for 10 minutes. When trading resumes, expanded limits are in place that allow the price to fluctuate by $24.00 in either direction of the previous day's settlement price. There are no price limits on any month during the last three days of trading in the spot month.
Last Trading Day
Trading terminates on the fourth to last business day of the month before the delivery month.
Contract Delivery Unit
The seller shall deliver 1,550 tons of coal per contract. A loading tolerance of 60 tons or 2%, whichever is greater, over the total number of contracts delivered is permitted.
Delivery Location
Delivery shall be made F.O.B. the buyer's barge at the seller's delivery facility on the Ohio River between Mileposts 306 and 317, or on the Big Sandy River, with all duties, entitlements, taxes, fees and other charges imposed prior to delivery paid by the seller. There will be a discount of $0.10 per ton below the final settlement price for any delivery to a terminal on the Big Sandy River.
Heat Content
Minimum of 12,000 Btus per pound, gross calorific value, with an analysis tolerance of 250 Btus per pound below.
Ash Content
Maximum of 13.50% by weight with no analysis tolerance.
Sulfur Content
Maximum of 1.00%, with analysis tolerance of 0.050% above.
Moisture Content
Maximum of 10.00%, with no analysis tolerance.
Volatile Matter
Minimum of 30.00%, with no analysis tolerance.
Hardness/Grindability
Minimum 41 Hardgrove Index with three point analysis tolerance below. Hardness measures how difficult it is to pulverize coal for injection into the boiler flame.
Size
Three inches topsize, nominal, with a maximum of 55% passing one-quarter-inch-square wire cloth sieve or smaller, to be determined on the basis of the primary cutter of the mechanical sampling system.
Position Accountability Levels
5,000 contracts for all months combined, but not to exceed in the last three days of trading in the spot month.
There will be a simulated trading session on the Exchange trading floor on Thursday, June 28, for members of the coal industry to familiarize themselves with open outcry trading and floor traders.
Forward Looking and Cautionary Statements
The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., has attempted, wherever possible, to make statements in good faith , as of the date of this release, by using words such as anticipate, believes, expects, and words and terms of similar substance in connection with any discussion of its present and future operations within the industry. Any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of the Exchange, involve a number of risks, trends, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results to differ materially, including; the Exchange's receipt of the necessary Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval; timely performance and cooperative effort of exchange partners; and changes in financial or business conditions at the Exchange.