It is a non-profit, self-regulating and membership legal entity under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), established on February 28, 1993.

Dalian Commodity Exchange trades in futures contracts underlined by a variety of agricultural and industrial produce on a national scale.

A near-tripling in volumes of its benchmark corn future in 2006 saw the contract leapfrog the DCE soy complex to become the single-largest product, with the 65m traded, trailing only Nymex WTI Crude in the global commodity rankings.

On August 20, 2007, China officially announced the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan (a national-level development strategy).

In this Plan, the Dalian Commodities Exchange was named as a key player in developing the fourth economic region in China.

The northeast area is a relatively untapped market space and is traditionally associated with an edge in natural resources such as crude oil, agricultural land, electricity and coal mining.

In the first few years after the introduction of commodity markets, new exchanges opened with wild abandon, and speculative volume ballooned.

Continued abuse in the market brought forth the Second Rectification in 1998, most of the surviving 15 futures exchanges were restructured, and subsequently closed.

[7] On July 17, 2000, DCE restarted trading soy meal, the first product listed since the last tumultuous rectification of China's futures exchanges.

A cointegration relationship exists for Dalian Commodity Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean futures prices.

China's economy more than doubled in size in the past decade, turning the country into the world's top user of commodities such as copper, soy and rice.

Though the government says it wants more financial instruments to help companies hedge risks, regulators aim to avoid a repeat of the 1990s, when speculation caused prices to soar and some contracts to fail.

[6] According to Wang Xue Qin, a noted expert on the Chinese futures market and also the vice general economist of Zhengzhou Commodities Exchange, in theory, a new contract can be listed upon approval by the CSRC.

According to the management, there will be more new contracts, pending from the favorable development in terms of types of products, market awareness and quality of participation over the coming few years, as futures are a key risk hedging component to an economy that is becoming more market-oriented and subject to global trade.

Deficit Agents in the trade will need to borrow cash from banks today to delay settlement of that Commodity Futures.

[12] Comprehensive market data for the DCE is also available for free through Quandl with history going back up to nearly a decade for some futures contracts.

[14] Other distributors of market data for the DCE include Wenhua Information Systems Co, Beijing Compass Technology Development and the Shanghai GW Network.