Qian Feng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has proposed the construction of an oil and gas trading market in the Yangtze River Delta that combines futures with cash markets. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

Qian Feng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposed the construction of an oil and gas trading market in the Yangtze River Delta that combines futures with cash markets.

According to Qian, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China is the largest importer and consumer of numerous bulk commodities in the world, while the YRD already has several regional cash and futures trading centers for energy and chemical products.

However, the international influence of the country's bulk commodity price is still lagging behind, he noted.

Qian said that existing small-scale bulk commodity trading markets in China have relatively small varieties of products, while there is still a large gap between the futures markets in the country and developed overseas markets, especially in terms of supporting facilities.

As such, he suggested the Shanghai Futures Exchange, Zhejiang Mercantile Exchange Co Ltd and Qingdao Customs strengthen cooperation and promote YRD integration in an effort to build the largest and most important distribution center and physical market in the Asia-Pacific region.

This center can produce data about the production, consumption, inventory, export-import quantity, and sources of import of crude oil and oil products at regular intervals.