By Piers De Wilde

September 8, 2018 - The volume of thermal coal derivatives traded and cleared on the ICE platform came to 114 million mt, a rise of 6.4% on month and 10.4% on year, according to data from ICE Futures Europe and electronic trading platform globalCOAL late Thursday.

Options made up 19.7% of the total volume of derivatives traded in August at 22.43 million mt.

ICE Rotterdam derivatives totaled 91.99 million mt, roughly unchanged on the month and up 12% on the year.

Rotterdam options came to 21.17 million mt, an increase of 10% on month but a fall of 5% year on year.

GlobalCOAL's FOB Newcastle derivatives totalled 16.86 million mt in August, an increase of 30% on month, but a fall of 3% on the year, with options coming to 1.26 million, roughly eight times July's volume.

ICE Richards Bay derivatives came to 5.16 million mt, up 46% on the month and 33% on the year. No Richards Bay options were traded in August.