The trading debut took place on May 18, 2011 with trading, post-trade and surveillance technology provided by Cinnober.

HKMEx offers market participants, through its member firms, an electronic platform to trade commodities. The Exchange began trading with 18 members, including some of the world's largest financial institutions and trading firms as well as several well-established Hong Kong brokerages.

"This trading debut marks a historical milestone while creating a liquid and vibrant international commodities exchange based in Hong Kong, linking China with the rest of Asia and the world," said Barry Cheung, chairman of HKMEx. "Our approach from the beginning of this journey has been to use the most advanced architecture, and the best versatility, functionality and performance of Cinnober's product offerings to enable us to provide best-in-class services to our customers."

HKMEx's state-of-the art Pearl® Trading System is based on Cinnober's TRADExpress technology, and the fastest commodity trading platform available today. It allows HKMEx to handle high liquidity and trading volumes on a secure and scalable high-end platform, while providing flexibility for the rapid development of new contracts, services and types of trading. The TRADExpress platform also manages post-trade clearing functionalities, such as giveup, takeup and position transfer. In addition to trading and post-trade capabilities, Cinnober also delivers the exchange's market surveillance tool Scila Surveillance.

"I think this launch is of utmost interest since HKMEx is uniquely positioned to create an efficient bridge between mainland China and the international financial community," said Nils-Robert Persson, chairman of Cinnober. "We're proud to have delivered one of the most advanced trading systems in the Asia Pacific region to this high-profile initiative."

The first product to be traded at the HKMEx is a 32-troy-ounce gold futures contract offered in US dollars with physical delivery in Hong Kong. Trading hours are between 0800 and 2300 Hong Kong Time, overlapping commodity markets in Europe and the US. In the pipeline are standardized products that will either be physically or financially settled, covering precious and base metals, energy and agriculture products, and commodity indices.

HKMEx has attracted shareholders from around the globe, including China's ICBC and COSCO Group as well as Russia's En+ Group, among others.

Cinnober provides high-transaction trading, surveillance and clearing-related systems to a number of leading venues, including Alpha Trading Systems, Burgundy, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Deutsche Börse, the London Metal Exchange, Markit BOAT and NYSE Liffe.