On March 27, Moscow hosted the IX Annual International Forum of the St. Petersburg Exchange "Exchange Commodity Market-2025.” The theme of the plenary session of the forum was: “A Strong Power - a Strong Exchange: How to Ensure Achievement of National Goals”. Participants discussed the role of the exchange as the main partner of the state in the development of strategic commodity industries, the importance of creating a national exchange price agency and the development of a common exchange information space with the EAEU+ and BRICS+ countries. The discussion was moderated by Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Centre.
The Exchange Institute plays a crucial role not only in organizing trade and the movement of goods, but also in ensuring transparency and accessibility of information for all market participants, including government authorities. In this context, scaling and integrating the successful experience of the St. Petersburg Exchange within the EAEU and BRICS regions is of significant importance, noted Alexey Ivanov.
"This is essential for ensuring the effective functioning of regional and international market structures,"
he emphasized.
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The Director of the BRICS Centre has presented a report on the legal challenges facing the cross-border exchange commodity market. There are successful examples of exchange platform integration worldwide, such as the European Union, where legislative initiatives led to the creation of Euronext, a platform that unites national exchanges. Other unions, like MERCOSUR and the African Union, are also developing integration concepts. However, major exchanges such as the London and Chicago exchanges operate as global platforms without a legal framework similar to that of the EU. Their success is ensured through risk mitigation, compliance, certified storage facilities, and the circulation of warehouse receipts, enabling them to operate on a global scale.
In photo: Alexey Ivanov © HSE
In the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), despite efforts to create a unified exchange market, legal conflicts and barriers persist, such as the lack of recognition of electronic digital signatures, which complicates digital document circulation. To enhance cross-border trade and integrate their exchanges into the global market, EAEU countries could draw on the experience of free economic zones, as seen in Singapore, China, and the UAE. For example, Dubai’s DMCC handles 15% of global gold trade through its warehouse receipt platforms and bonded warehouses, highlighting the potential of such free zones to foster exchange trading development.
Igor Artemyev, President of the St. Petersburg Exchange, emphasized the importance of exchanges not only for finding buyers and determining market prices but also for creating indicators that are crucial for market functioning. However, the key issue remains the state's readiness to use the information provided by exchanges for various purposes, primarily for tax and customs regulation. Mr. Artemyev is critical of the practice of relying on data from agencies like Argus and Platts for these purposes and suggests using market prices formed on exchange platforms. Another challenge is the lack of integration of exchange indicators into judicial practices and legislative acts, limiting their use for state purposes despite their significance.
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Russian exchanges, including those in St. Petersburg and Moscow, are already fulfilling the role of registering transactions for commodities such as sugar, oil, gas, fertilizers, and others, while also becoming major repositories for market data, emphasized Mr. Artemyev.
The exchange institute also plays a key role in combating the use of gray schemes and transfer pricing. Current government efforts, supported by the Bank of Russia, were noted, aimed at creating traceability chains that will allow for monitoring transactions at every stage, from the initial to the final transaction. Furthermore, Mr. Artemyev announced the creation of a Russian National Exchange Price Agency, based on the SPX information system, which will focus on collecting and analyzing market data, as well as implementing methodologies for determining market prices.
"Ultimately we have to offer the whole palette of market prices. Tell me, who but the stock exchange can offer this - and trading, and OTC registration, and questionnaires? Nobody,"
he emphasized. In the future, cooperation with partners from China, India, Brazil and other BRICS+, OPEC and EAEU countries is planned to be an important step to create an international pricing agency, Mr. Artemyev said.
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The issue of a unified exchange space was not addressed in the agreement establishing the EAEU, but over the past decade, exchange trading in the Union's countries has significantly improved. Now, the creation of a unified exchange space is needed, taking into account the high technological level of the exchanges, noted Maxim Ermolovich, Minister of Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission. He outlined the main directions for integration development in the context of creating a common exchange complex: achieving systemic openness of commodity markets, providing all participants with equal access to information about prices, trading volumes, delivery terms, and so on, as well as standardizing and harmonizing exchange trading.
“All of this will ultimately lead to the creation of an institutional risk management ecosystem for cross-border deliveries. These risks are high, and an exchange space with technologically advanced platforms significantly addresses the issue of hedging these risks across various sectors.”
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Philipp Gabunia, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, emphasized the importance of over-the-counter (OTC) information in the process of forming price indicators, noting the large trading volumes on electronic platforms, both those related to and independent of government procurement.
"We see the potential for utilizing data that financial indicator administrators can obtain from OTC markets. However, at present, there are challenges in accessing this data and assessing its applicability. We plan to create incentives for the market so that data owners share it with indicator providers and also engage in the creation of new indicators that can be used across various industries."
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The creation of national price indicators is a matter of strategic importance, emphasized Ivan Chebeskov, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia. Even if international indicators return in the future, priority will be given to national and partnership-based indicators, he believes. Transparent price formation and ensuring equal conditions for all market participants are crucial for fostering international cooperation with partners in the EAEU and BRICS.
"The depth of commodity markets is important to ensure that prices are truly formed based on a large number of transparent transactions. The more partners we involve in this process, the more accurate the price will be, and accordingly, the information flowing into the financial, tax, and budget systems."
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An example of an already established partnership is the trade and economic cooperation between China and Russia through the Chinese city of Hunchun (Jilin Province). Zhang Linguo, Mayor of Hunchun, expressed hope that the St. Petersburg Exchange would become a bridge for expanding practical cooperation between Russia and China across a wide range of areas and would help optimize cross-border trade processes. These processes include the trade of goods such as coal, seafood, metal ores, clean energy sources, and more. For instance, 80% of seafood imports from Russia to China pass through Hunchun.
"Moreover, we hope to expand cooperation in areas such as finance, logistics, and digital economy, as well as achieve deeper integration of production and supply chains. All of this will work for the benefit of our peoples and give a powerful boost to the development of our regions in close coordination with each other,"
said Zhang Linguo.
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In the case of certain non-industrial goods, such as grain, exchange quotations have already become the basis for calculations, which has reduced the spread between wholesale and retail prices by 10-12%. After the inclusion of oil products in exchange trading in 2011, speculative price fluctuations decreased by 8-10%. These figures demonstrate that when goods are traded through exchange platforms, it is not just about fixing the price, but stabilizing the market. This also reduces the role of intermediaries and dishonest practices, emphasized Dmitry Kuskov, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Licensing for Foreign Trade of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. The inclusion of goods that have the most significant impact on inflation, especially in socially important sectors, in exchange trading will help improve business across three key areas: reducing shadow premiums from intermediaries, creating objective indicators for businesses and regulators, and accelerating the adaptation to market changes.
“We view exchange trading as a bridge between market freedom and state regulation. Already, we are seeing how agricultural products and oil products are demonstrating reduced price volatility. By adding materials such as construction goods to this list, we will create a system that anticipates crises,”
said Anton Rubtsov, Director of the Oil and Gas Refining Department of the Ministry of Energy of Russia. He shared insights into the experience of working with exchange indicators in the oil industry, highlighting logistical issues that complicate supplies, and emphasized the need for a form of commodity clearing as well as building infrastructure involving Russian Railways (RZD) and connecting port capacities. He firmly believes that only with the development of the right ecosystem will the exchange be able to reach an international level.
Dmitry Murev, Deputy Managing Director – Head of the Centre for Branded Transport Services at the Russian Railways (RZD), discussed the operations of the “Commodity Supply Operator” electronic platform (CSO RZD). This project, launched in 2021, is designed to support and build the exchange infrastructure for the transportation of goods and raw materials by rail. In 2024, 1.6 million tons of oil products were contracted through OTP RZD on the St. Petersburg Exchange, which is 22 times more than the previous year. As of early 2025, more than 1.8 million tons have already been contracted, a 14-fold increase compared to the same period in 2024. According to Mr. Murev, the share of OTP RZD in the total volume of oil product trading on the St. Petersburg Exchange is expected to reach around 30% by the end of the first quarter. He also highlighted the potential for using the platform in trade with partners within the EAEU and on an international level.
In photo, from left to right: Dmitry Kuskov, Anton Rubtsov, Ivan Chebeskov, Alexey Ivanov, Igor Artemyev, Maxim Ermolovich, Philipp Gabunia, Zhang Linguo, Dmitry Murev © Spimex
Summing up the meeting, Igor Artemyev noted that the St. Petersburg Exchange intends to further develop its logistics system and, in the future, provide clients with a wide range of services, including freight and insurance. Additionally, major exchanges may be granted "systemically important" status, similar to that of large banks in the financial sector. In this case, supervisory requirements would become stricter, but the guarantees for clients would also become more transparent and reliable.
“We are at an important stage of development and must restore the matrix that was properly established. I am confident that this can be achieved within the next three years,”
he emphasized.
The annual International Forum "Exchange Commodity Market” is the leading event dedicated to the development of exchange (organized) trading in Russia’s commodity and raw material sectors, including oil products, oil, gas, timber, mineral fertilizers, coal, metals, and sugar, as well as the formation of national price indicators and modern information services for the dissemination of market data.
The forum is organized by the St. Petersburg International Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, the largest commodity exchange in Russia, which unites over 7,000 trading companies, including non-residents.
