BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China's futures trading volume in May totaled 138 million lots, up 60 percent from a year earlier, but down 20 percent from April, according to statistics released by China Futures Association (CFA) here late Saturday.

    Total trading in May reached 9.37 trillion yuan (about 1.37 trillion U.S. dollars), up 85 percent year on year.

    The country's futures trading totaled 676 million lots, or 38.3 trillion yuan, in the first five months this year, representing a 38 percent growth in volume and 30 percent rise in value, according to the CFA.

    Polyvinyl chloride or PVC futures contracts, which were landed at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) on May 25, attracted intense attention. About 276,000 lots of PVC contracts worth of 8.98 billion yuan were traded during the first three trading days.

    Of the three futures exchanges on Chinese mainland - in Dalian, Shanghai and Zhenzhou - May trading volume of DCE, which has listed futures products of soybean, soybean meal, soybean oil, corn, RBD palm oil and LLDPE, climbed 69 percent year on year to 67 million lots.

    According to the regulations of DCE, a lot for the futures contract has 10 tonnes, except that of LLDPE and PVC, which require 5 tonnes each.

    Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) completed a trading volume of 51.2 million lots in May, up 232 percent from last May. Futures products listed at SHFE include steel, copper, aluminum, zinc, gold, rubber and fuel oil.

    SHFE's futures contract is set at 5 tonnes per lot, except that of fuel oil, which is 10 tonnes, and gold at one kilogram per lot.

    Total trading volume of Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) in May slipped 37 percent from a year ago to 19.5 million lots. ZCE focuses on futures products like cotton, rapeseed, wheat, sugar and pure terephthalic acid.

    ZCE's futures contract is fixed at 5 tonnes per lot, except that of wheat, early rice and sugar, which is 10 tonnes each.

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