CME Sets Q1 2027 Tungsten Futures Launch, Adds European Dairy Contracts

CME Group will launch Tungsten futures by early Q1 2027, pending regulatory reviews, with the contract listed on COMEX and financially settled against the Fastmarkets assessment for tungsten APT (Ammonium Paratungstate), duty unpaid basis, CIF Rotterdam and Baltimore.

The launch rides on record metals activity: 1.2 million contracts traded daily across precious and industrial metals in the first nine months of 2026, up 41% year-on-year.

The exchange positions the contract against a physical market it sizes at over $20 billion, based on current spot prices and annual production of 85,000 to 95,000 metric tons. Tungsten carries critical-mineral designations from the U.S., the E.U., Japan and India, has an active spot market, and has lacked a futures market entirely.

What does the contract actually do?

It gives manufacturers and physical traders a hedging instrument where none existed. Jin Hennig, Managing Director and Global Head of Metals at CME Group, said: "Tungsten sits at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, semiconductor technologies and geopolitics, and our clients are increasingly seeking to hedge their exposure and improve price transparency."

Hennig added the contract "will join our growing suite of critical minerals and energy transition metal products, providing clients more opportunities to manage risk as global supply chains restructure."

What CME did not say: contract size, tick value, listing calendar beyond "early Q1 2027," or block trade thresholds. Desks will need those parameters before they can price basis risk against the Fastmarkets APT assessment.

Maarten Gassmann, Managing Director at Grondmet, flagged the budgeting gap the contract fills: "For our manufacturing clients, tungsten is essential to production but has been difficult to budget for without a forward market. This contract allows them to plan their operations with greater cost certainty." That cost certainty, of course, depends entirely on liquidity the contract has not yet demonstrated.

Raju Daswani, CEO of Fastmarkets, said: "Growing volatility and concentrated supply are increasing the need for transparent, trusted price benchmarks in the tungsten market." The benchmark chain now runs physical assessment to financially settled derivative — no delivery mechanism, no warehouse framework.

Quentin Lamarche, CEO of TechMet SCM, called the contract "an important new tool to manage the commercial risks involved in the physical trading and logistics of tungsten," noting that forward pricing "will support reliable, long-term western supply chains."

What changes in dairy?

Separately, CME Group will launch European dairy futures and options before the end of 2026, also pending regulatory reviews, covering four products:

• European Skimmed Milk Powder
• European Butter
• European Whey Powder
• European Liquid Milk

The move is the first step in regional expansion following an agreement with the European Energy Exchange earlier this year. The contracts will be financially settled, initially track EEX indices, then transition to CME Group indices. They will list on and subject to the rules of CME.

The dairy complex arrives with momentum: record monthly open interest averaging 420,922 contracts a day in September, up 42% year-over-year, and an all-time daily open interest record of 461,493 contracts on September 29.

John Ricci, Global Head of Agricultural Products at CME Group, said: "We've long served the dairy community across the U.S., and now we're bringing that same commitment to Europe. By offering futures and options, we're giving participants a more complete toolkit to deploy capital efficiently and manage regional price risk — all on a single platform alongside our U.S. complex."

What is still open?

CME and EEX are also working to transition the EEX Weekly European Cheese Indices and the Pan European Butter Index to CME Group — a transfer with no stated completion date.

Both launches remain contingent on "all relevant regulatory reviews." The tungsten timeline is "early Q1 2027" with no compliance or listing mechanics published; the dairy timeline is "before the end of 2026" with the EEX-to-CME index transition unscheduled. Desks evaluating cross-listing, clearing and connectivity impacts should treat both dates as targets, not commitments, until CME files contract specifications.