Trading Statistics for November 2008

“The trading statistics reflect the market development seem during the last month. Yet the Imarex Group’s market position remains strong and our new business initiatives are being well received by the market. This combined with a firm belief as we communicated at the Q3 presentation last week, that the market will pick up when going into the new year, makes us confident that 2009 will provide significant opportunities” says Herman W. Michelet, Chief Executive of Imarex.

Energy Derivatives

The number of energy transactions was down 7 % on November 2007, to 24,081, with energy trading volumes down 9 %, to 843 TWh.

Tankers and Dry Bulk Derivatives

The tanker futures volume was 14 970 lots in November, down 33 % from the same month last year. The dry bulk futures volume was 8 829 lots, down 57 % from the same period in 2007. The freight options volume was 8 315 lots, down 33 % from November 2007, but up 7 % compared to October 2008. The dry bulk freight rates continued to decline. This can be illustrated by the Baltic Dry Index for spot rates which was 851 at the end of October and 715 at the end of November 2008.

Freight Open Interest

At the end of October, open interest for dry bulk and tanker futures was 34 857 and 32 023 lots respectively (long only positions). Open interest for freight options was 34 893 lots. The open interest is the total number of lots which remain to be liquidated by either close-out-trades or delivery at NOS Clearing. NOS Clearing counts only long positions. Other clearing houses often count both long and short positions into the open interest.

Freight trading and clearing members

At the end of the reporting month the number of freight derivatives clearing and trading members stood at 205, up 13 % from one year before.

For more information, please contact:
• Herman W. Michelet, Chief Executive Officer Tel: +47 2389 4223 hm@imarex.com
• Arild Jæger, Chief Financial Officer Tel: +47 2389 4211 arj@imarex.com