Platts aligns NWE ammonia assessments, specifications, effective Jan 2

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has amended and aligned the specifications of its CFR Northwest Europe ammonia assessments, effective Jan. 2, 2025.

These changes align Platts' daily and weekly ammonia coverage, driving greater consistency and providing a more granular assessment of price, following greater volatility in the ammonia market in recent years.

A summary of the changes is as follows:

Spot and contract market assessments

Platts has removed the contract component of its weekly CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) (FNWEA04) and CFR NWE (duty unpaid) (FANEA04) assessments, having previously considered information from spot and contract markets, which can settle on different cadences.

These assessments now reflect the price of product traded in the spot market, considering spot bid, offer and transaction data. In line with Platts methodology, when no spot bid, offer or transaction data exists, Platts may consider other verifiable data reported and published throughout the day, including fully and partially confirmed trades, notional trading values and other market information as provided for publication.

Location, quantity and timing specifications

Platts has changed the location, quantity and timing specifications of the weekly and daily NWE ammonia assessments. This aligns specifications relating to the daily CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) assessment (FANEB00) and the weekly CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) (FNWEA04).

The quantity specification for the weekly and daily assessments has moved to a basis of 15,000 mt to better reflect typical transaction sizes in NWE. Platts will normalize information to this point where necessary. Previously, the weekly assessments reflected a minimum 4,000 mt clip size. This change will align the volume specifications for the weekly assessments with those of the daily assessment.

The daily and weekly assessments now reflect a basis location of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Platts previously reflected information relating to all ammonia-importing ports in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK without any normalization to a basis port. Platts will continue to consider market information relating to these locations, subject to normalization to the Antwerp and Rotterdam basis.

The delivery window of the weekly assessments has been changed to reflect cargoes for delivery one to six weeks forward, compared with product shipped up to six weeks forward previously. Platts has also clarified the wording of the daily assessment specifications to cargoes for delivery one to six weeks forward, compared with product to be shipped one to six weeks forward previously.

The revised specifications for each of the assessments read as follows:

FANEB00 -- CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) -- daily

Quality: Anhydrous ammonia, which is around 82% nitrogen and is stored and transported as a liquid under pressure at around minus 33 degrees Celsius

Quantity: Basis 15,000 mt

Basis and location: T2 spot product, CFR NWE, basis Antwerp/Rotterdam (assessment considers market activity at ammonia-importing terminals in NWE, defined as Finland-France range)

Timing: Delivery one to six weeks forward

Frequency: Daily

Appears in: Platts Fertecon Daily

Unit of assessment: US dollars per mt

FNWEA04 -- CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) -- weekly

Quality: Anhydrous ammonia, which is around 82% nitrogen and is stored and transported as a liquid under pressure at around minus 33 degrees Celsius

Quantity: Basis 15,000 mt

Basis and location: T2 spot product, CFR NWE, basis Antwerp/Rotterdam (assessment considers market activity at ammonia-importing terminals in NWE, defined as Finland-France range)

Timing: Delivery one to six weeks forward

Frequency: Weekly

Appears in: Ammonia Market Report

Unit of assessment: US dollars per mt

FANEA04 -- CFR NWE (duty unpaid)

Quality: Anhydrous ammonia, which is around 82% nitrogen and is stored and transported as a liquid under pressure at around minus 33 degrees Celsius

Quantity: Basis 15,000 mt

Basis and location: T1 spot product, CFR NWE, basis Antwerp/Rotterdam (assessment considers market activity at ammonia-importing terminals in NWE, defined as Finland-France range)

Timing: Delivery one to six weeks forward

Frequency: Weekly

Appears in: Ammonia Market Report

Unit of assessment: US dollars per mt

Alignment of daily, weekly CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) ammonia assessments

In addition, Platts has defined and standardized the relationship between the weekly and daily duty-paid/duty-free assessments. Previously, the weekly assessment was published as a range with a low and a high value. As of Jan. 2, 2025, this range reflects the lowest and the highest of the daily assessments published over the course of the preceding week.

Platts has also launched a third "close" value for the weekly assessment, reflecting market value at 4:30 pm London time on Thursdays, mirroring that day's daily assessment.

For example, in the week of Dec. 13-19, 2024, Platts published its daily NWE ammonia assessment at $620/mt on Friday, Dec. 13, Monday, Dec. 16 and Tuesday, Dec. 17. Meanwhile, Dec. 18 was assessed at $610/mt and Dec. 19 at $600/mt. In this scenario, the weekly range assessment would have been published at $600-$620/mt, and the close value would have been $600/mt, with the latter reflecting value at the close of the market on Thursday, Dec. 19.

A summary of the changes to each assessment is as follows:

Symbol	Assessment name	Frequency	Summary of changes
FANEB00	Ammonia CFR NWE (duty paid/duty free) $/mt	Daily	Assessment reflects basis 15,000 mt, basis location Antwerp and Rotterdam, product delivered one-six weeks forward. Other parameters normalized where possible
FNWEA04	Ammonia CFR Northwest Europe (duty paid/duty free) $/mt	Weekly	Assessment reflects spot market; contract component removed Assessment reflects basis 15,000 mt, basis location Antwerp and Rotterdam, product delivered one-six weeks forward Launch of "close" value reflecting Thursday's daily assessment (FANEB00); low and high reflect low and high of the week
FANEA04	Ammonia CFR NWE (duty unpaid) $/mt	Weekly	Assessment reflects spot market; contract component removed

The above changes follow a proposal, published June 28, 2024, available here, and a period of market feedback. Platts confirmed the changes in a subscriber note published Aug. 8, 2024, available here.

The weekly CFR NWE duty-paid/duty-free and duty-unpaid assessments appear in the Ammonia Market Report and are available via Platts Connect. The daily CFR NWE duty-paid/duty-free assessment appears in Platts Fertecon Daily and on Platts Connect.

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