Asia will be the dominant player in gold futures soon. The gold futures contract traded at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is still the world?s leader, but Asian exchanges are coming up fast.

The major Asian commodity exchanges include Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TCE), Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), Mumbai and Taiwan Futures Exchange (TCE).

The combined volume of gold futures trading at exchanges in Shanghai, Tokyo, Taiwan and Mumbai during the January/August 2008 period reached 49.8 million contracts, well ahead of the 34.3 million contracts traded in the USA, said Bennett Voyles, in a latest issue of The Futures Industry Association (FIA) ? outlook 2009 futures industry .

Much of that growth was in Shanghai and Mumbai, but demand for gold futures is rising generally throughout Asia. From January through August of this year, seven of the top 10 gold contracts in the world were Asian, Voyles said.

Among the top futures exchanges, Comex division of NYMEX registered total trading volume of gold futures at 26.61 million contracts during the first eight months of this year, followed by SHFE with 17.83 million contracts, TCE with 10.84 million contracts and MCX stood at 9.03 million contracts.

Interestingly, MCX?s gold and gold mini contracts have each more than doubled in size over the last year. During the review period, MCX gold futures volume rose to 9.03 million contracts from 4.47 million contracts while gold mini futures volume increased to 4.67 million contracts from 1.58 million contracts same period a year ago.

Taipei-based Taiwan Futures Exchange (TFE), which listed its gold futures contracts in December 2007, had registered a volume of 3.21 million contracts. Gold futures trading took off this year at exchanges in Shanghai, Tokyo and Taiwan.

In addition, gold futures have just been reintroduced in Hong Kong and may be coming to Bangkok next year. And the Middle East, which has many commercial links to Asia, may soon have two contracts if the Dubai Mercantile Exchange follows through on plans to compete in gold futures against the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX).

So 2009 may well see all of these exchanges thriving in their respective markets, and Asia as a whole become even more of a major center for the global trade in gold, Volyes said. The sheer volume of ongoing consumer demand for gold in Asia is also an important factor. Asia imports 60% ofthe world?s trade and it exports 40%.

India is the largest consumer of physical gold in the world, followed by the US, and then China. And this year,

China became world?s largest gold producer?a title South Africa had held for more than 100 years.