Agriculture, Biofuel

January 07, 2025

Platts proposes to incorporate the price of Brazilian CBIO carbon credits into its assessments of Brazilian ethanol, March 10, 2025

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, proposes to incorporate the price of Brazilian CBIO carbon credits into its assessments of Brazilian anhydrous, hydrous and Grade B ethanol for export, as well as its Raw Sugar Equivalent indicator, effective March 10, 2025.

Including the Platts CBIO price assessment would better reflect the opportunity cost of forgoing carbon credits when ethanol is exported instead of being retained for domestic consumption. Brazilian ethanol plants typically factor in the value of CBIOs when selling ethanol to trading companies for export. This approach allows producers to account for the missed opportunity of generating CBIOs, which would have provided financial reward for the plant and supported Brazil's decarbonization goals had the ethanol been used domestically.

Platts began publishing a price assessment for CBIOs in June 2024. The below table considers the impact of including CBIOs in the relevant hydrous and anhydrous Brazil ethanol assessments and Raw Sugar Equivalent indicator, based on an analysis of historical data from June 12, 2020 to Jan 2, 2025. The publicly available average historical B3 CBIO prices plus applicable tariffs and taxes associated with these CBIO transactions were used in the analysis, for a consideration of impact over a longer period of time.

The CBIO first traded on June 12, 2020, and has had an average price Real 87.53/mtC02e for the aforementioned period.

June 12, 2020-Jan. 2, 2025
Average Platts Price ex. CBIOs and associated costs Average Platts Price incl. CBIOs and associated costs $ difference % difference
Platts Hydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos/Paranagua ($/cu m) $542.67 $557.17 $14.50 2.67%
Platts Anhydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos ($/cu m) $602.27 $618.12 $15.85 2.63%
Platts Ex-mill Ribeirao Hydrous Raw Sugar equivalent (¢/lb) $15.10 $15.49 39 cents 2.58%

Under this proposal, the assessments would include Platts CBIO (Real/mtC02e) assessment (symbol ACIBA00) and consider applicable tariffs and taxes associated with these CBIO transactions.

The affected assessments are:

  • AAXNR00 -- Hydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos/Paranagua ($/cu m)
  • AAXNS00 -- Grade B ANP FOB Santos/Paranagua ($/cu m)
  • AATAE00 -- Anhydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos (cents/gal)
  • AAWFO00 -- Anhydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos ($/cu m)
  • AAWFP00 -- Anhydrous ethanol ANP FOB Santos (Real/cu m)
  • AAXOA00 -- Ex-mill Ribeirao Hydrous Raw Sugar equivalent (cents/lb)

The assessments currently appear in the Platts price database under the codes above, in the Biofuelscan and in the weekly Fuel Ethanol report.

Please send all feedback, comments, or questions on this proposal, to mrts_biofuelsandfeedstocks@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Jan. 31, 2025.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if they are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make those not marked as confidential available upon request.