EEX Group recorded significant increases in trading volumes on the natural gas, emissions and agricultural markets in 2017. Volumes also increased on the power spot markets while the power derivatives markets showed a year-on year decrease.
“While the power market was driven by major regulatory uncertainty in 2017, the combination of a defined diversification strategy in conjunction with strong innovative solutions has resulted in impressive results in all business segments except power derivatives which in turn, enables us to continue along our growth path,” says Peter Reitz (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of EEX.
In total, a volume of 3,760.7 TWh (2016: 4,455.6 TWh) was traded on the power markets in 2017. This volume includes the markets of EEX, EPEX SPOT, the Serbian SEEPEX power exchange, Power Exchange Central Europe (PXE) and Nodal Exchange which joined EEX Group in May 2017.
The power spots markets of EEX Group increased by 2 per cent to 543.3 TWh (2016: 535.3 TWh). This includes 472.4 TWh from the day-ahead market and 71.0 TWh traded on the intraday market. While Day-ahead trading at EPEX SPOT decreased slightly, the Intraday markets reached an all-time high again, exceeding the previous record of 2016 by 15 per cent.
On the power derivatives market of EEX Group 3,217.3 TWh were traded in total (2016: 3,920.3 TWh). This includes 1,882.7 TWh traded on the German power market (Phelix-DE and Phelix-DE/AT) compared to 2,665.1 TWh in 2016. The decrease was due to a massive uncertainty in the market in light of the announcement to split the German Austrian price zone. Against this background, EEX introduced separate power futures for Germany (Phelix-DE Futures) and Austria (Phelix-AT Futures) in April. Since launch, volumes have continuously shifted from Phelix-DE/AT Futures to the Phelix-DE Future which has now firmly established itself as the new benchmark contract for European power.
In the Italian and Spanish power market, EEX continued to increase its market shares in Italian Power from 63 per cent to 74 per cent and Spanish Power from 32 per cent to 40 per cent in an overall shrinking market environment. As a result, EEX continues to strengthen its position as the leading exchange platform for these market areas. Italian power volumes amounted to 394.4 TWh (2016: 480.9 TWh) while Spanish power amounted to 66.9 TWh (2016: 71.7 TWh). Furthermore, EEX recorded a 190 per cent increase in Dutch Power with 16.4 TWh traded (2016: 5.7 TWh).
Following the migration of the PXE power contracts for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary to the EEX platform in June 2017, the trading volume increased by 188 per cent to 49.0 TWh. With the migration, EEX Group has brought European power traders closer together by opening up Central and Eastern European markets to traders who were not active in this region before. Additionally, EEX Group extended its scope to the North American energy markets by adding the US exchange and clearing house Nodal Exchange and Nodal Clear to its portfolio. Since May 2017, the power markets of Nodal Exchange contributed 394.9 TWh to the overall power volume.
The natural gas volumes of EEX Group continued its growth and recorded a significant increase of trading volumes in 2017. An all-time high volume of 1,981.5 TWh was traded throughout the year on the natural gas markets, representing an increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous year (2016: 1,756.2 TWh). The volume includes the PEGAS markets as well as the PXE gas markets. The gas spot volumes amounted to 827.7 TWh which is an increase of 24 per cent (2016: 665.9 TWh) while the gas derivatives markets accounted for a total volume of 1,153.9 TWh (2016: 1,090.4 TWh).
In 2017, a total volume of 1,380.5 million tonnes of CO2 was traded on the emissions markets (2016: 949.9 million tonnes of CO2), which corresponds to a 45 per cent increase. EEX carried out 206 primary market auctions for EU Emission Allowances (EUA) and EU Aviation Allowances (EUAA) in 2017 with a total volume of 849.2 million tonnes of CO2. On the EUA secondary market, EEX was able to further strengthen its position and increase its volumes by 71 per cent to 530.5 million tonnes of CO2 (2016: 309.5 million tonnes of CO2).
A positive development was also recorded for the agricultural products. In the third year of trading, the total volume amounted to 65,453 contracts (2016: 55.838 contracts). On the derivatives market for dairy products, in particular, EEX was able to significantly increase its volumes by 71 per cent from 16,410 contracts (equals 82,050 tonnes) to 27,564 contracts (137,820 tonnes), achieving a new annual volume record.
In the global commodities segment EEX reached an important milestone with the novation of all remaining 2018-2024 positions in Dry Bulk Freight FFA from LCH Ltd. to its clearing house European Commodity Clearing (ECC) in November. In 2017, 473,209 contracts were traded in the freight market which is an increase of 8 per cent compared to 2016 (437,599 contracts).