Platts to reflect only non-sanctioned methanol in CFR China assessment

S&P Global Platts will reflect only non-sanctioned material in its CFR China methanol assessment, effective Jan. 3, 2022, following extensive market consultation and feedback.

This follows from a decision note published on May 14, 2021: tinyurl.com/bdzdbyvt

Platts assessments aim to reflect the market value of widely tradable material. Platts understands that individual companies may have trading limits with counterparties and that national legislation may prevent companies from dealing in materials of certain origins which includes embargoed material.

As of December 2021, there are international sanctions on methanol supplies from countries including Iran and Venezuela. Platts no longer reflects trades of these supplies within its CFR China methanol assessment, effective Jan. 3, 2022.

Platts first proposed the change in a subscriber note published on March 24, 2021:tinyurl.com/mskewzm8

Platts will continue to collect, verify and publish price information pertaining to these supplies, clearly stating its origin, and may normalize it to the standard for assessment purposes.

All other assessment methodology parameters for methanol CFR China remain unchanged. The assessment reflects clip sizes of 5,000-10,000 mt with minimum purity of 99.85%, maximum water content of 0.1% by total weight and maximum ethanol content of 50 ppm, for delivery 20-50 days forward from date of publication into Nantong, Taicang, Jiangyin, Zhangjiagang and Ningbo. Credit terms remain basis L/C 60-90 days.

For deals with non-standard usance, the value of the extra credit allowance will be factored out for price assessment.

The assessment takes into consideration latest information sourced from the market up to close of the assessment window at 4:30 pm Singapore time (0830 GMT) and follows the Singapore publishing schedule.

Current Platts Asia Methanol specifications can be found in page 15 of the methodology document here: http://plts.co/X1yT30rBzQZ

Platts CFR China methanol assessments appear in the Petrochemical service on Platts Dimensions Pro, in Asian Petrochemicalscan, Solventswire publications, on Platts Petrochemical Alert pages 653, 348, 449 and under the following price database symbols in Platts Market data: AAWAZ00, AAWAZ04, AAWAZ03. Please send all feedback or questions to petchems@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com. For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.