The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), the leading commodities exchange in the Middle East, has recorded a 20 per cent increase year-on-year in physical delivery volumes during 2016.

DME registered the highest physical delivery in the history of the Exchange in 2016, shipping a total of 260.68 million barrels during the year compared to 216.16 million barrels in 2015. Average daily volume (ADV) touched a new high in 2016 at 8,762 lots, an increase of 19 per cent over the previous year, while monthly delivery volumes rose 20.5 per cent to 21.72 million barrels.

Physical delivery for the month of January pegged at 28.509 million barrels and a record 29.887 million barrels due for delivery in February – the highest ever monthly volume registered on the Exchange.

“Over the last five years, DME has taken a number of measures aimed at enhancing our trading platform and physical delivery infrastructure, and our steady growth in volumes is a direct reflection of our success in offering customers a state-of-the-art, highly secure trading environment along with fair and transparent pricing,” said Ahmad Sharaf, chairman of DME.

“With the balance of oil demand shifting eastwards, DME has successfully leveraged its position as the most credible source of pricing for oil trade flows in the region to expand its volumes and capitalize on the rapidly growing crude oil trade between the Middle East and Asia.”

The DME Oman is the only regulated benchmark to price crude heading East of Suez and is backed by the support of oil production from Oman which today stands at over one million barrels per day. – TradeArabia News Service