Cleared Carbon Volumes Surged on ICE as EIB May Have Begun Sales - Bloomberg

The volume of carbon contracts cleared on the ICE Futures Europe exchange more than doubled in the period since Dec. 1 as the European Investment Bank may have started selling 2013 contracts for the first time. So-called exchange-for-physical December 2012 contracts transferred from the over-the-counter market on to the exchange, the biggest for carbon trading, totaled 85.3 million metric tons in the period through Jan. 6 from Dec. 1, according to data compiled by OTC Europe LLP. That compares with 30.6 million tons of December 2011 EFPs in the same period a year earlier. Total exchange-cleared trading for EU permits in 2011 rose 5 percent from the year before, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The highest volume of EFPs handled in the period was on Jan. 4, when 7.8 million tons traded, the data show. That coincided with the record low for the December 2012 contract of 6.38 euros ($8.10) a ton in intraday trading. Prices fell as low as 7.21 euros a ton on Dec. 6, a record at the time, as EFP trading more than tripled to 5.6 million tons compared with the day earlier.