Platts to launch weighted average Supramax TCE indices Feb. 1

Following a period of market feedback, S&P Global Platts will start publishing new daily weighted average Supramax time charter equivalent (TCE) indices reflecting Asia Pacific trade, basis 0.5% sulfur bunker fuel and scrubber-fitted ships, and comprising ton-mile rates of five key TCE assessments, from Feb. 1, 2021.

The new indices will be called APSI 5 and APSI 5S.

The APSI 5 index will be a demand-weighted average of five key time charter equivalent assessments basis 0.5% sulfur bunker fuel, while APSI 5S will be an average of the same TCE assessments basis scrubber-fitted ships.

Platts first proposed launching the new indices in a subscriber note published Dec. 10: http://plts.co/WsZD50CZ2Vo

The new indices reflect an important part of the global dry bulk market that is otherwise not reflected in existing price benchmarks.

Supramax vessels in Asia Pacific typically remain within the region and the associated flows depend significantly on triangulation, which helps to minimize ballast time as well as boost tonnage utilization and earnings.

The new indices reflect this important vessel flow that includes the movement of wide-ranging commodities such as coal, nickel ore, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, aggregates, fertilizers, met-coke, bauxite, spodumene, iron ore, bauxite, manganese, grains and sugar.

At the same time, Platts will start publishing Supramax voyage and TCE assessments for the Newcastle, east coast of Australia to Campha, Vietnam route from Feb. 1 to reflect the increasing liquidity on this thermal coal route -- http://plts.co/WsnQ30rr8tP

The APSI 5 and APSI 5S index assessments for the 57,000 dwt Supramax class vessel are derived by applying an allocated weighting to the daily Supramax TCE assessments of five key round voyages published at the 5:30 pm Singapore time close (0930 GMT).

The index assessments follow the Platts Singapore publishing schedule.

Weighting for the individual TCE assessments is determined by the volume of Supramax vessel movements observed between the regions associated with the respective voyages in the last three years from Platts cFlow, trade flow software, calculated in ton-miles.

Ton-mile demand is calculated by multiplying the volume of cargo moved in metric tons by the distance traveled in miles.

From Feb. 1, the weighting for the average TCE assessments will be as follows, based on flows observed over Jan. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2019:

Basis bunker fuel 0.5%:

Route Voyage Weighting (%)

PSTCE33L Newcastle, Australia-Campha, Vietnam 33.1%

PSTCE22L S Kalimantan, Indonesia-Paradip, India 9.5%

PSTCE24L E Kalimantan, Indonesia-Guangzhou, China 18.8%

PSTCE21L Richards Bay, South Africa-Paradip, India 23.9%

PSTCE19L Mina Saqr, UAE-Paradip, India 14.7%

Basis scrubber fitted:

Route Voyage Weighting (%)

PSTCE33 Newcastle, Australia-Campha, Vietnam 33.1%

PSTCE22 S Kalimantan, Indonesia-Paradip, India 9.5%

PSTCE24 E Kalimantan, Indonesia-Guangzhou, China 18.8%

PSTCE21 Richards Bay, South Africa-Paradip, India 23.9%

PSTCE19 Mina Saqr, UAE-Paradip, India 14.7%

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