The total number of contracts traded in this market increased from 3½ billion in 1995 to more than 5 billion in 1997. A further important development that flowed from the globalisation process is the emergence of a Euro-rand market where the outstanding amount of rand-denominated loans raised by non-South African borrowers from non-South African investors now amounts to about R36 billion.
Even before last year's hurricanes, however, a mismatch appeared to be emerging between the incremental supply of crude oil, which tended to be heavy and sulfurous, and the demand by refiners for light, sweet crude, which can be converted more easily into clean-burning transportation fuels.