SHANGHAI yesterday started publishing the Yangshan price, named after the city's bonded port, for commodities such as copper in a bid to magnify China's voice in the global market.

The Yangshan price may bring the domestic market and the global market closer because the commodities in the Yangshan Free Trade Port Area, which has become a key port for copper trade and storage, are tax-free.

The first Yangshan price launched yesterday was the US dollar-denominated Yangshan Copper Premium to the widely-watched London Metal Exchange copper settlement. The premium will be decided via phone queries and deal making on a daily basis and published on financial terminals, including Reuters, Bloomberg and Xinhua 08.

"The launch of the Yangshan price will help turn Yangshan from a pure sea port to a resource-allocation and pricing center, repeating the success of Rotterdam and London," said Wang Xinling, vice director of the Shanghai Free Trade Zones Administration. He added the Yangshan price may evolve into a financial derivative in the future. The administration oversees the Waigaoqiao and Pudong International Airport free trade zones.

There have been calls for new policies for commodity futures-related business in the Yangshan free trade port. The port together with Waigaoqiao and Pudong airport took up a third of China's total copper imports last year.

Last year, Shanghai started a scheme that allows firms registered in the free trade zone to improve cash flow by using metals stored at bonded warehouses in Yangshan as loan collateral.

The Yangshan free trade zone could hold 1.7 million tons of nonferrous metals in a total bonded storage area of 200,000 square meters.