Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s plan to co-list commodities contracts on mainland Chinese exchanges, outlined in recent weeks, has fired the starting gun in a battle for a significant share of China’s nascent commodities futures market.

China is the second-largest consumer of oil in the world, the largest consumer of base metals and a big importer of grains, but has never been a major player on the world's commodities futures stage. Local regulation preventing foreign investors from accessing Chinese exchanges, a low local appetite for hedging and the historical centres for physical commodities trading being in the US and Europe, have conspired to stunt growth.