China is making a push to dominate the trading of lithium carbonate futures, as it seeks to wrest the financial plumbing linked to metals vital to the clean energy revolution away from the western dollar-based financial system.
Last month Guangzhou Futures Exchange became the fourth global commodities exchange to launch contracts tracking the price of lithium carbonate, a mineral used in the manufacture of electric-vehicle batteries.
Within three weeks open interest — a key measure of the size of the market — had risen to more than 20,000 lots and far outstripped activity at rivals London Metal Exchange, Singapore Exchange and the US’s CME Group, which had launched its own version just days earlier.