ICE Launches New VLCC Tanker and Container Freight Contracts

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) has launched new tanker and container freight futures and options. The company is a provider of financial market technology and data for global capital markets, and it operates energy derivatives markets. Average daily volume (ADV) across ICE's freight markets is up 33% year-to-date.

ICE has 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. The contracts are cash-settled and based on Baltic Exchange price assessments. They 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). They build on the equivalent freight futures ICE launched in April 2026, which are indexed to NYSHEX's Freight Indices (NYFI). The options let customers 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 sits within ICE's global energy network alongside Brent and Low Sulphur Gasoil, which price the oil barrel itself, while freight prices the cost of moving that barrel from port to port.

Jeff Barbuto, SVP, Global Head of Oil Markets, ICE

Jeff Barbuto, SVP, Global Head of Oil Markets, ICE made the comments:

"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,"

ICE's freight contracts sit alongside marine and high sulphur fuel futures used by shipping companies globally. They also sit alongside its 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.

Found this interesting? Become a member of LiquidityFinder and get daily industry news direct to your inbox, join here.