European coffee and cocoa warehouse companies are holding discussions with ICE in order to temper the strict new warehousing rules designed to prevent logjams, report news sources.
Talks are progressing towards a compromise, the industry association said.
“We have discussed our proposals in a joint conference call and we are working on some clarifications and changes for different fields in the exchange’s grading and warehouse keeping procedures,” chairman of the European Warehousekeepers Federation (EWF) Enrico Antony, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Cocoa Conference in Amsterdam.
Warehousing has been controversial in metals markets for years and more recently in coffee and cocoa.
In January the exchange announced changes to its cocoa and coffee grading and storage rules.
The new rules, which followed ICE’s acquisition of NYSE Liffe, included a 60-day limit on how long warehouses can charge rent when delivery or transfer of stock is delayed.
Some warehouses were unhappy with the changes and sought to temper them.
The EWF did not give details of the proposals. ICE declined to comment.
Source: [via]
