Extension of LCH EnClear Freight Clearing service to Baltex 

Dear Member

From Wednesday 8 June 2011 we will be extending our clearing service for freight to cover trades executed on the new Baltex platform, the FFA exchange set up by the Baltic Exchange.

Trades from Baltex will be registered automatically in ClearWay, the front end for ECS, alongside all other FFA trades, with the ‘source’ showing as ‘BTX’. All confirmed trades will flow into the current pool of open interest for FFAs and will be fully fungible with existing and new FFA trades from all sources.

Trade Pending Window

Baltex trades can be confirmed in ClearWay either manually or automatically through the setting of lot limits. Baltex has implemented a 120 minute pending window for their trades.  This means that if a Baltex trade is still pending in ClearWay after 120 minutes, Baltex will cancel that trade, and it will show up as cancelled in ClearWay. However, with the agreement of both parties, Baltex would re-submit the relevant trade for clearing.

Exchange Fees

LCH.Clearnet will collect exchange fees for Baltex and will provide monthly invoices for the Baltex exchange fees alongside our clearing fees. These will be shown as a separate item on the monthly invoices. Baltex fees will be $10 per lot per side for every contract. LCH.Clearnet fees will remain unchanged - these can be found at:  www.lchclearnet.com/freight/ffas/fees.asp

If you have any questions related to this circular, please do not hesitate to contact:

Isabella Kurek-Smith on +44 20 7426 7460 or [email protected]

Holly Shaw on or +44 20 7426 7027 [email protected]

Kind regards

Isabella Kurek-Smith
Director, Head of Energy and Freight