EEX Group continued its growth path in 2018, further consolidating its position as a global commodity exchange. On the power and emissions markets in particular, EEX recorded significant volume gains and continued its long-term growth trend.
“In 2018, we increased our volumes in almost every market. In addition, with the establishment of EEX Asia and the expansion of our offering in North America, we implemented further important steps to strengthen EEX Group’s position as a global commodity exchange,” says Peter Reitz (pictured), CEO of EEX.
Overall in 2018, EEX Group power markets achieved a volume of 4,962.1 TWh (2017: 3,760.7 TWh), resulting in a new volume record. This volume includes the markets of EEX, EPEX SPOT, PXE, SEEPEX and Nodal Exchange. As a result, EEX Group maintained its position as the number 1 exchange group in power trading worldwide.
The group’s power spot markets grew by 6 per cent to 576.6 TWh (2017: 543.3 TWh). This volume included 494.1 TWh traded on the day-ahead markets (2017: 472.4 TWh). On the intraday market, the volume totalled 82.5 TWh, representing a 16 per cent increase compared to the previous year (2017: 71.0 TWh). The introduction of a cross border solution for intraday market coupling (XBID) with a common order book was a milestone in short-term power trading.
On the power derivatives markets, EEX Group volumes rose by 36 per cent to 4,385.5 TWh (2017: 3,217.3 TWh). This included 1,038.6 TWh from the North American markets of Nodal Exchange (May to December 2017: 394.9 TWh), while the EEX European Derivatives Markets accounted for a share of 3,346.9 TWh, which corresponds to a 19 per cent increase year on year (2017: 2,822.4 TWh).
In 2018, EEX increased its power trading volumes in almost every territory. Significant increases were achieved on the markets for Italy (559.7 TWh, +42 per cent) and Spain (106.5 TWh, +59 per cent), confirming EEX’s position as the biggest trading platform. Furthermore, the volume on the eastern European markets on which EEX introduced further short-term maturities in 2018 doubled to 102.2 TWh (2017: 49.0 TWh). The Dutch (31.1 TWh, +89 per cent) and Belgian (5.7 TWh, +324 per cent) power trading volumes also developed very positively. On the British market, EEX recorded regular trading activities for the first time in the second half of the year with a total trading volume of 335 GWh.
On the markets for Germany and Austria, EEX again succeeded in strengthening its position in 2018. The volume in the German Phelix-DE product increased to 1,934.5 TWh (2017: 286.9 TWh) and in the Austrian Phelix-AT product to 12.2 TWh (2017: 0.07 TWh). A volume of 75.4 TWh was traded in the former German-Austrian contract in 2018, compared to 1,595.7 TWh in 2017. Overall, trading volumes for Germany and Austria rose last year by 7 per cent to 2,022.0 TWh
At 1,962.9 TWh, EEX Group nearly met the record volume achieved on the natural gas markets in the previous year (2017: 1,981.5 TWh). The volumes on the natural gas spot markets totalled 1,111.2 TWh rising by 34 per cent (2017: 827.7 TWh), while volumes on the Natural Gas Derivatives Market totalled 851.7 TWh (2017: 1,153.9 TWh).
On the emissions markets, the total volume rose by 110 per cent to the record level of 2,896.6 million tonnes of CO2, more than doubling the trading volumes of 2017 (2017: 1,380.5 million tonnes of CO2). In 2018, EEX carried out a total of 210 primary market auctions for EU Emission Allowances (EUA) and EU Aviation Allowances (EUAA) with a volume of 819.4 million tonnes of CO2. On the secondary market, EEX successfully increased trading volumes: While the spot secondary market rose by 82 per cent to 107.2 million tonnes of CO2 (2017: 59.0 million tonnes of CO2), volumes in futures and options rose by 318 per cent to 1,973.0 million tonnes of CO2 (2017: 472.2 million tonnes of CO2), further strengthening EEX’s position as a CO2 trading platform.
In 2018, the product offering in the emissions markets was extended outside of Europe for the first time. In November 2018, Nodal Exchange in cooperation with IncubEX launched a number of emissions and environmental products for the North American market. A volume of 6,750 lots was traded in these new products by year end.
The total trading volume in Agriculturals was 60,251 contracts (2017: 65,453 contracts). In August 2018, EEX launched a Liquid Milk Future as a new hedging tool in which a volume of 23 contracts (corresponding to 575 tonnes of commodity equivalent) has been traded so far.
In 2018, EEX Group Freight contracts cleared into ECC increased by 1 per cent year on year (2018: 35, 715).
In addition, with the establishment of EEX Asia, EEX Group strategically realigned its offering for the Asian market with a view to further development and expansion in this region.
