ICE Launches New VLCC Tanker and Container Freight Contracts as Customers Hedge Freight Risk Across Global Trade Routes

Includes First Futures on the TD34 Gulf of Oman to China and TD15 West Africa to China VLCC Routes as Geopolitics Reshape Global Freight Markets

LONDON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world's leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, and home to the largest and most liquid energy derivatives markets in the world, today announced the launch of new tanker and container freight futures and options as average daily volume (ADV) across ICE’s freight markets is up 33% year-to-date.

ICE has today launched the first tanker freight futures on the TD34 FFA - Gulf of Oman to China and TD15 FFA - West Africa to China Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) routes which are cash-settled futures based on Baltic Exchange price assessments designed to give the market an additional way to hedge these routes as customers navigate restricted access through the Strait of Hormuz.

ICE has also launched two cash-settled container freight average price options, FAN - Asia to North Europe and FAW - Asia to U.S. West Coast, built on the success of the equivalent freight futures ICE launched in April 2026, which are indexed to NYSHEX's Freight Indices (NYFI). The options give customers more flexibility to manage freight rate risk on two of the world's busiest cargo routes.

The new contracts extend ICE's freight complex to more than 90 contracts across over 30 global routes spanning wet and container freight. Freight is part of ICE's global energy network alongside Brent and Low Sulphur Gasoil, which price the oil barrel itself, while freight prices what it costs to move that barrel from port to port. With the launch of these contracts, ICE is giving the market additional, precise tools to lock in the cost of moving cargo and manage volatility across supply chains around the world.

“Freight markets are some of the most closely watched in the world right now as geopolitical developments continue to reshape established trade routes," said Jeff Barbuto, SVP, Global Head of Oil Markets at ICE. “What makes ICE's offering so valuable is that the market can manage the full chain of risk, the commodity and the cost of moving it, in one place, as events like the disruption at the Strait of Hormuz continue to affect both.”

“We're seeing that play out in real time as ship owners reroute vessels, buyers shift to alternative sources of crude, and the market reprices risk across routes far from the Gulf. ICE’s new TD34 and TD15 contracts give customers direct, transparent ways to hedge Gulf of Oman-loading and West Africa-loading voyages for the first time,” continued Barbuto.

ICE's freight contracts sit alongside marine and high sulphur fuel futures used by shipping companies globally, and its global oil benchmarks, including Brent, the global benchmark for internationally traded crude oil, ICE Midland WTI (HOU), ICE Dubai (Platts), and Low Sulphur Gasoil, the global benchmark for middle distillates.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds, and operates digital networks that connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes helping our customers access mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and efficiency. ICE’s futures, equity, and options exchanges -- including the New York Stock Exchange -- and clearing houses help people invest, raise capital and manage risk. We offer some of the world’s largest markets to trade and clear energy and environmental products. Our fixed income, data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers streamline processes and capitalize on opportunities. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming U.S. housing finance, from initial consumer engagement through loan production, closing, registration and the long-term servicing relationship. Together, ICE transforms, streamlines, and automates industries to connect our customers to opportunity.

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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 -- Statements in this press release regarding ICE's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as filed with the SEC on February 5, 2026.

Category: Exchanges

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