Germany’s EEX Group has heralded a major advance in its battle with the Singapore Exchange for a greater share of the cleared and exchange-traded freight derivatives market.

A surge in dry bulk trading has meant that freight volumes this year have already surpassed what Deutsche Borse-subsidiary EEX racked up in consecutive years since 2016.

“We’ve had our largest monthly trading volume ever, by quite some way,” EEX senior manager Richard Heath said.