Trading in China’s national carbon emissions allowance (CEA) market totaled 1.23 million tons in May, an increase of 17% from April, but still well below the median of all past monthly total volumes. Most of the increase came from a return of the open market transaction volume to near its historic monthly median after two months of extremely low volumes. Block trades, however, still accounted for 83% of May’s total volume. There was not any noteworthy policy or market news during the month.
Prices also recovered from multi-month lows seen in April. Open market transactions closed May at 58.50 yuan ($8.26)[1] per ton, the highest monthly closing in a year. The volume-weighted average price for block trades was 56.37 yuan ($7.96) per ton for May, the highest in ten months. The volume-weighted average price for all trades in May was 56.42 yuan ($7.97) per ton, the highest in eight months.
[1] 1 US$ = 7.0821 RMB, middle price, May 31, 2023, China State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The same exchange rate is used for all other values quoted in US dollars ($) in the article.