Frequently Asked Questions
At the initial stage of its launch, QME adopts the spot quotation and trading model whereby a participant publishes and quotes information like the price and quantity of the products intended to be sold or purchased through QME’s e-trading system and enters into an electronic transaction contract with a qualified counterparty which accepts the offer and takes up the products after the transaction in accordance with the principal of “first-come-first-served” and then completes the settlement with the producer warrant or warehouse warrant. The spot commodity quotations are divided into sale quotations and purchase quotations, with delivery happening immediately upon completion and instant settlement conducted on a trade-to-trade basis.
QME’s trading hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on each spot quotation and trading day, i.e., from Monday to Friday (except national holidays and non-trading days announced by QME).
As of now, the commodities available for trade on QME are alumina, aluminium billet, aluminium rods and copper rods, including producers, warehouses, and non-standard commodities. For further details, please see the announcement of the launch of commodities.
Yes, after the transaction is completed, the settlement operations including submitting warrants, topping up payments, invoicing, checking receipts can be carried out at any time, regardless of the trading hour. It is important to note that the participants can only conduct the settlement when the contract is in a normal state and not when it is in dispute.
| Issue | Trigger |
Time (or period) of Raising Objection |
Initiator | Processing Method |
| Payment Top-up | The buyer fails to top up the payment within the specified time frame | Payment top-up deadline | Automatically initiated by the system | Dealt with in the same way as the buyer’s default and terminate the contract |
| Delivery (offline delivery) |
The seller fails to deliver the goods within the specified time frame |
Delivery deadline | Automatically initiated by the system | Dealt with in the same way as the seller’s default and terminate the contract |
| The seller has delivered the goods, but the goods are inconsistent with the agreement. | After the seller confirms the delivery and before the deadline for inspection by the buyer | Initiated manually by the buyer | According to the negotiation results between the two parties and if a consensus is not reached, subject to the decision of QME | |
| Invoice issuance | The seller fails to issue the invoice within the specified time frame | After the deadline for seller's issuance of invoice | Initiated manually by the buyer | According to the negotiation results between the two parties and if a consensus is not reached, subject to the decision of QME |
| Invoice | The invoice issued by the seller contains incorrect information | After the seller has actually issued the invoice and before the deadline for inspection by the buyer |
Once the participant raises the objection and during the disagreement period, the other party may choose to:
1) Negotiate with the counterparty to resolve the disagreement; fill in and affix its seal on the sample "Application Form for Invoicing and Invoice Disagreement Handling" provided by QME; email the scanned copy to the designated mailbox of QME while delivering the hard copy to QME by courier.
2) If both parties wish to continue to proceed with the contract without any amendment after negotiation, the party who raises the objection shall withdraw such objection via customer portal before proceeding with the contract.
3) If both parties fail to reach an agreement during the period of dissent, participants shall adduce evidence to QME on the liability for objection, and QME will then determine the liability and handle the matter accordingly in compliance with the rules before holding the defaulting party liable for deduction of deposits in full or withdrawing the objection.
How to deal with disagreement：
To: Settlement and Management Officer, Operation Department, Qianhai Mercantile Exchange (深圳前海聯(lián)合交易中心有限公司 運營部交收管理崗收)
Group A, Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Center, No. 4008 Menghai Road, Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Zone, Shenzhen (深圳市前海深港合作區(qū)夢海大道4008號前海深港創(chuàng)新中心A組團)
Postal Code: 518054
Email: customerservice@qme.com
Tel: 0755-21871100
QME has a three-tier account system comprising bank account, fund account and settlement account. A bank account refers to the account opened by a participant, a designated delivery institution or a designated financing institution at a designated bank. The fund account and the settlement account are the internal accounts set up by QME in its trading system. The fund account is used for remittance of payments and serves as the channel between the bank account and settlement account and cannot be used to settle funds involved in transactions, delivery, warehouse entry and storage. The settlement account is used for the settlement of funds involved in transactions, delivery, warehouse entry and storage.
“Deposit” means to transfer funds from a bank account to a fund account of QME while “withdrawal” means to transfer funds from the participant’s fund account to a bank account.
QME implements a real-time settlement system for each transaction whereby real-time collection and payment of funds and commodities happen upon completion of each transaction.
Payments will be settled based on the principles of “collection per each payment” and “payment after collection”. The buyer pays for the goods and related expenses in full before completing the transfer of the payments and the warrants. QME will conduct a day-end reconciliation on the settlement data on a daily basis.
Upon completion of each transaction, the seller shall issue a full amount special invoice including value-added tax to the buyer within the specified time frame.