The European Energy Exchange (EEX) continued its growth story and was able to significantly increase its trading volumes in 2016. On its core markets – the power, gas and CO2 markets – it set new records while achieving growth in new market segments. This growth was supported by new product developments on its core markets as well as through acquisition.
Peter Reitz
In 2016 we succeeded in further strengthening our position as the leading energy exchange – in particular, in our core markets, while achieving significant growth in our new markets”, explains Peter Reitz, Chief Executive Officer of EEX. “Our customers benefit from one-stop-shop access to a broad range of energy and commodity products. In 2017, we will continue to work on increasing market shares in our core markets and boosting liquidity in our new markets.
In total, a record volume of 4,455.6 TWh was sold on the Power Spot and Derivatives Markets (2015: 3,061.2 TWh), which corresponds to a 46% increase as against the previous year. This volume includes the markets of EEX, EPEX SPOT, the Serbian SEEPEX power exchange and the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe (PXE), which became part of the group in June 2016. As a result, EEX Group directly extended its offering within the eastern European power markets.
On the Power Spot Markets, 535.3 TWh were traded in total (2015: 524.2 TWh) with the day-ahead market accounting for 473.7 TWh thereof and the intraday market of EPEX SPOT accounting for 61.6 TWh.
The Power Derivatives Market accounted for a share of 3,920.3 TWh in the total volume. This corresponds to a 55% year-on-year increase (2015: 2,537.1 TWh). Once again, this development was driven, in particular, by the markets for Germany (2,665.1 TWh, + 53% as against 2015), France (453.7 TWh, + 52%) and Italy (480.9 TWh, + 21%). In addition, EEX was also able to continuously increase its volumes in further market areas, such as Spain (71.7 TWh, + 219%) and the Netherlands (5.7 TWh, + 317%). In conjunction with the volume increases, EEX was able to further increase the market share in its markets, from 31% to 37% in Germany, from 49% to 63% in Italy, from 24% to 33% in France and from 13% to 32% in Spain.
1,756.2 TWh were traded throughout 2016 on the gas markets of EEX Group. This volume is 69% higher than in the previous year (2015: 1,042.0 TWh) with the Spot Market accounting for 665.9 TWh (2015: 457.7 TWh), while a total volume of 1,090.4 TWh (2015: 584.3 TWh) was sold on the Derivatives Market. In the second half of the year, the offering on PEGAS, the EEX Group gas trading platform operated by Powernext, was expanded with the products of the Austrian Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) and of the Danish Gaspoint Nordic. As a result, trading participants now have access to further European gas markets via one platform and, in addition, they can also trade price differences between these market areas.
In 2016, a total volume of 949.9 million tonnes of CO2 was traded on the Emissions Markets (2015: 677.6 million tonnes of CO2), which corresponds to a 40% increase. This includes 640.1 million tonnes of CO2 from 195 primary market auctions for EU Emission Allowances (EUA) and EU Aviation Allowances (EUAA), which EEX carried out in 2016. On the EUA Secondary Market, EEX was able to almost triple its volumes to 309.5 million tonnes of CO2 (2015: 105.9 million tonnes of CO2). EEX also launched trading in EUA options in 2016 and, in addition, introduced new maturities beyond 2020 expanding its product offering to the fourth phase of the EU ETS. Furthermore, the EU Commission confirmed EEX as the EU auction platform for another period of up to five years.
In the second year of trading in Agriculturals, EEX recorded a total volume of 55,838 contracts (May to December 2015: 36,564 contracts). On the Derivatives Market for Dairy Products, in particular, EEX was able to significantly increase its volumes and, at 16,410 contracts (corresponding to 82,050 tonnes of commodity equivalent), it achieved a new annual record. In this context, the monthly volume exceeded the level of 10,000 tonnes of commodity equivalent for the first time in December 2016.
Within the Global Commodities segment, the Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX) markets for iron ore (315,621.2 kt, + 55%) and fuel oil (4,703.1 kt, + 37%), in particular, developed positively. Within the Freight segment, contracts were registered on EEX for clearing via European Commodity Clearing (ECC) for the first time in 2016. By the end of the year, EEX reached a volume of 12,655 contracts in Freight futures. In addition to the EEX Trade Registration Service, these products can also be traded via CLTX within EEX Group.