While the US Congress dithers over expanding oil drilling and spends its time trying to investigate and regulate speculators and sue OPEC, our friends on the other side of the globe are buying lots of oil and creating new vehicles for investment and speculation. WSJ:

In an effort to tap the global surge in commodities investing and China’s growing role in determining the world’s prices for petroleum and other raw materials, Hong Kong plans a new exchange that will trade fuel-oil contracts. The new Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, set to open as soon as the first quarter of next year, will sell U.S. dollar-denominated contracts for delivery of fuel oil to mainland China…

the market must draw investor and corporate interest from big commodities markets in New York and elsewhere and their growing after-hours electronic trading services. Previous efforts in Hong Kong and elsewhere stumbled owing to lack of interest.

“Previous efforts in Hong Kong and elsewhere stumbled owing to lack of interest.” Hmmm. Why do we get the feeling that they might have no problem attracting a certain number and kind of investor this time around?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm and is filed under China, business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.