On November 30, 2018, the world's unique PTA futures opened the international road in ZCE. Over the past year of operation, PTA futures have become more and more international: by the end of 2019, 143 overseas customers had opened accounts and 85 overseas customers participated in transactions, including 52 industrial customers. At the same time, PTA futures price has gradually become an important reference for international trade pricing, more and more foreign enterprises choose PTA futures for pricing.

Steady increase of overseas customers: PTA futures are becoming more and more "international"

For GSI, a European trading giant, to enter the Chinese market as a "qualified buyer" is one of the goals of GSI. With the internationalization of PTA futures, GSI's wish has been realized.

"PTA futures are open to the outside world, and overseas buyers are the beneficiaries." Xu Zhiying, China Manager of GSI, told reporters.

"Going global" PTA futures make overseas enterprises become the participants of PTA futures. According to the data of ZCE, by the end of 2019, 143 overseas customers had opened accounts, involving 11 countries and regions. In total, 85 overseas customers participated in PTA futures trading, including 74 corporate customers and 11 natural person customers.

The data also shows that the average daily trading volume of PTA futures overseas customers is 96000 (unilateral, the same below), accounting for 7.6% of PTA futures trading volume, with the highest position breaking through 10000, reaching 12000. BP, for example, has had 46000 transactions since it opened an account in July 2019, with an average of 5200 positions at the end of the month.

Through the comparison of panel data, the reporter found that since the start of PTA futures internationalization, the total position and total trading volume of PTA continued to increase. In 2018, the average daily position of PTA was 1.6 million, and in 2019, the average daily position had risen to 2.27 million. The total volume of PTA transactions also increased from an average of 1.4 million in 2018 to an average of 2.56 million in 2019, further improving the market activity.

Wen Hao, deputy general manager of Hengli Petrochemical Co., Ltd., believes that after the internationalization of PTA futures, global participation is increasing, PTA futures positions and trading volume are increasing, further improving the competitiveness and influence of China's PTA industry in the international market. "After internationalization, the number of PTA imports is decreasing year by year, the number of PTA exports is increasing year by year, and the ability of foreign exchange earning is increasing." He said.

PTA futures become the basis of industry quotation: "Chinese price" becomes standard

The mature PTA futures market gives the world a new understanding of China's polyester industry. In addition to "China weaving", there is also "China price" of the global polyester industry wind vane.

"Because of PTA futures, domestic bottle chip factories have started to quote forward prices to foreign customers at one price since the second half of 2018, which is also an important reason for the rapid growth of export in the whole bottle chip market last year. The share of domestic bottle chips in the foreign market has increased." Said Xu Zhiying.

In addition to domestic enterprises, foreign enterprises also refer to PTA futures in pricing. The reporter learned in the interview that since the second half of 2019, the Quotation Strategies of some bottle chip companies in the EU market have changed, and the forward quotation has begun to appear. Many enterprises have locked the forward raw material prices and sources of goods in the futures market.

"Many foreign investors even put forward whether they can use one method to compare the settlement price of PTA futures in China, rather than the current price of such consulting institutions as proctor's, which shows that foreign investors very much recognize the price discovery function of PTA futures." Wen Hao said that from this point of view, PTA futures internationalization effect exceeded market expectations.

The introduction of PTA futures to foreign investors is a good start for Zhengzhou Futures market. Industrial enterprises look forward to the internationalization of more characteristic and market-oriented futures.

In response, the relevant principal of ZCE said that ZCE would further promote its own international development, promote the opening of specific varieties such as methanol and introduce foreign traders on the basis of PTA futures internationalization. "For ZCE, according to the deployment of China Securities Regulatory Commission, it is our mission to firmly promote the opening up of the market and better play the role of variety function." The person in charge said.

2018年11月30日，全球独有的PTA期货在郑商所开启国际化之路。运行一年多来，PTA期货越来越具有国际范：截至2019年年底，143个境外客户开户，85个境外客户参与交易，其中包括52家产业客户。同时，PTA期货价格逐渐成为国际贸易定价的重要参考，越来越多境外企业选择PTA期货进行定价。

境外客户稳步增加：PTA期货越来越有“国际范”

对于欧洲瓶片贸易巨头意大利GSI公司来说，以“合格的买家”身份进入中国市场是该公司发力中国市场的目标之一。随着PTA期货国际化的推进，GSI公司的愿望得以实现。

“PTA期货对外开放，境外买家是受益者。”GSI公司中国区经理徐志颖对记者说。

“走出去”的PTA期货，让境外企业真正成为PTA期货的参与者。郑商所数据显示，截至2019年年末，共有143个境外客户开户，涉及11个国家和地区。累计85个境外客户参与PTA期货交易，其中法人客户74个，自然人客户11个。

数据还显示，PTA期货境外客户日均交易量9.6万手（单边，下同），占PTA期货交易量的7.6%，持仓量最高突破1万手，达1.2万手。以英国石油公司（BP）为例，其自2019年7月开户以来，累计交易量4.6万手，平均月末持仓量约5200手。

通过盘面数据对比，记者发现，PTA期货国际化启动以来，PTA总持仓和总成交量持续增加，2018年PTA日平均总持仓为160万手，2019年平均日持仓量已上升至227万手。PTA总成交量也从2018年日平均140万手，上升至2019年日平均256万手，市场活跃度进一步提升。

恒力石化有限公司副总经理温浩认为，PTA期货国际化之后，全球参与度在提高，PTA期货持仓量和成交量都在增加，进一步提升了中国PTA行业在国际市场的竞争力和影响力。“国际化之后，PTA进口数量在逐年减少，出口PTA数量在逐年增加，出口创汇能力有所增强。”他说。

PTA期货成为行业报价基础：“中国价格”成风向标

成熟的PTA期货市场，让世界对中国聚酯产业有了新认识，除了有“中国织造”，还有全球聚酯产业风向标的“中国价格”。

“因为有了PTA期货，境内瓶片工厂从2018年下半年起，大量地开始一口价报远期价格给国外客户，这也是去年整个瓶片市场出口增长较快的重要原因，国内瓶片在国外市场的份额有所提升。”徐志颖说。

除了境内企业，境外企业在定价中也参考PTA期货。记者在采访中获悉，2019年下半年开始，欧盟市场上一些瓶片公司的报价策略发生了改变，远期报价开始出现，很多企业借力期货市场锁定远期原材料价格和货源。

“不少外商甚至提出，能否用一种办法对标中国PTA期货的结算价格，而不是按照现行的普氏等咨询机构的价格，这说明外商非常认可PTA期货的价格发现功能。”温浩说，从这点来说，PTA期货国际化效果超出了市场预期。

PTA期货引入境外投资者对郑州期货市场而言是一个良好的开始。产业企业期待更多有特色、有市场的期货品种能国际化。

对此，郑商所相关负责人表示，郑商所接下来将会进一步促进自身的国际化发展，在PTA期货国际化的基础上，推进甲醇等特定品种的对外开放，引入境外交易者。“对郑商所而言，按照中国证监会的部署，扎实推动市场对外开放，更好发挥品种功能作用是我们的使命。”该负责人说。