China's crude oil contracts seen boosting Shanghai Free Trade Zone

The authorities are looking to a "golden era" for the mainland commodity futures market, with the launch next year of crude oil contracts at the heart of Beijing's quest to gain pricing power over major commodities.

The currency crisis in Russia, which resulted partly from a plunge in oil prices, has added weight to calls for an early launch of the crude contracts as China seeks to exert clout in the industry in line with its status as the world's top net importer of oil.

Yang Maijun, the chairman of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, who outlined his vision for a commodity futures market at a forum this month, said the country's leadership had been fully aware of the need to create an active and internationalised trading platform for major commodities.

"It is a must for the country to give full play to the futures market to help achieve the goals of price discovery, risk control and reasonable allocation of resources," Yang said. "Corporate investors should be given greater freedom in participating in futures trading."

The debut of crude futures also will give a shot in the arm to Shanghai's free-trade zone, where the trading will be conducted, as criticism has mounted that the zone has notched up few achievements since it opened in September last year.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission took a significant step towards drastically liberalising the futures market after it gave the approval to crude oil futures earlier this month, following two years of preparations.