Shanghai Will List The World's First Cultural Paper Financial Derivatives

Shanghai International Financial Center welcomes innovative financial products once again. On August 15th, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced its approval for the registration of offset printing paper futures and options, fuel oil, petroleum asphalt, and pulp options on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "SHFE"). This marks the listing of the world's first cultural paper financial derivative in Shanghai, while accelerating the coverage of mature futures and options.
From the perspective of application fields, paper can be divided into cultural paper, packaging paper, household paper, specialty paper, etc. Offset printing paper is a typical representative type of cultural and printing paper, mainly made from bleached wood pulp and widely used in fields such as books, magazines, and notebooks. It also has the characteristics of a large market volume, high standardization, and large price fluctuations.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of offset printing paper. In 2024, China's offset printing paper production was 9.48 million tons, with an apparent consumption of 8.71 million tons. In recent years, the domestic and international market environment has been complex and ever-changing, and China's paper industry is facing significant revenue growth pressure, with a high demand for industry hedging.
The introduction of the futures market will provide more accurate and suitable risk hedging tools for this industry chain, "said Li Qing, Chief Researcher of CITIC Futures Research Institute. As the core category of cultural paper, offset printing paper's price trend is not only affected by the fluctuation of upstream pulp costs, but also closely related to the supply and demand pattern of downstream publishing, printing, office stationery and other industries, and its price elasticity shows obvious cyclical characteristics. Since 2022, the production capacity of the paper industry has continued to expand, and both offset printing paper manufacturers and distributors are facing a state of sustained weak prices and sales, increasing operational pressure on enterprises; For downstream end users, although the weakening of paper prices helps to reduce procurement costs, it may be accompanied by issues such as unstable paper quality, which overall is not conducive to stable business operations.
Industry insiders pointed out that the launch of offset printing paper futures and options will provide precise tools for managing price volatility risks for cultural paper industry chain enterprises in China, and accelerate the formation of open, transparent, and fair market prices. At the same time, a synergistic effect is formed with pulp futures to create a complete risk management chain of "pulp offset printing paper", strengthen the closed-loop management of exposure risks from raw materials to finished products by upstream and downstream enterprises, improve the full cycle risk management system of the pulp and paper industry, and enhance the quality and efficiency of commodity futures market services for the real economy.

It is worth mentioning that the paper industry has strong circular economy characteristics. It is reported that after the listing of offset printing paper futures and options, the industry will be guided to fully implement the concept of green and circular development through contract system arrangements such as delivery grade selection and delivery certification brand access. For example, in the selection of delivery certification brands, priority will be given to enterprises with relevant green certification qualifications, guiding production enterprises to promote environmental protection processes and use market-oriented means to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the paper industry.