Platts launches Asian physical benzene eWindow

S&P Global Platts launched the eWindow communication tool and started publishing bids, offers and trade information for Asian physical benzene FOB Korea and CFR China in the Platts Market on Close assessment process through the technology, effective Feb. 25, 2022.

Platts first announced the launch in a subscriber note published Feb 10. https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/021022-platts-to-launch-asian-physical-benzene-ewindow-feb-25.

Participants in the Platts MOC process are able to submit bids and offers for publication directly through the eWindow communication tool, or through an editor who would then publish bids and offers using the software.

The eWindow instruments are for benzene cargoes on FOB Korea basis and CFR China basis, available through the month for outright bids and offers, and time spread bids and offers in US dollars per metric ton.

For example from March 1-10, the eWindow instruments available are second-half March, April, May and June, as well as H2 March/April, April/May and May/June spreads.

From March 11-15, first-half April, H2 April, May and June outrights as well as H1 April/H2 April, H2 April/May and May/June spreads instruments will be listed. These will be available until the end of March 31, 2022.

The eWindow instruments will generate a different format for headlines of bids and offers published on Platts Petrochemical Alert page 5 and via other Platts services.

For example, a headline that previously appears as "Platts Benzene: B1) Benzene: Company A bids H2 May at $940/mt FOB Korea, 3kt" will be published as "Platts Benzene FOB Korea H2 May, Company A bids $940.00 for 3."

Company short names may also appear differently.

The timing and increment guidelines for bids and offers submitted by market participants for publication directly through the eWindow are as follows:

Timing: All outright and time spread bids and offers must be submitted by 16.00.00 Singapore time.

Incrementability: Maximum $1/mt per 30 seconds.

Repeatability: Maximum of 30 seconds to repeat a bid or offer following a trade.

Final state: None. Price changes can be made up to 16.30.00 hours Singapore time, which is also the same time as the end of the MOC process.

Extension: Price changes, or a rebid or reoffer in the last 30 seconds will trigger a 60-second extension period in order to adequately test that bid or offer.

As per Platts methodology, buyers or sellers can withdraw bids/offers at any time when communicating through eWindow, provided no prior interest to transact has been expressed by any potential counterparty. All bids and offers are firm from the moment submitted into eWindow to the moment they are traded, the MOC period closes or the bid/offer is withdrawn from the system by the trader or a Platts editor.

Please note that market participants can still submit bids and offers directly to the benzene editor, who would then publish them using the eWindow software. The timing and increment guidelines for these will follow the current guidelines for the manual MOC process, which are as follows:

Timing: All outright and time spread bids and offers will have to be submitted by 16.00.00 Singapore time.

Incrementability: Maximum $1/mt per 60 seconds

Repeatability: Maximum 60 seconds to repeat a bid or offer following a trade

Final state: 4:28.00.00. Price changes cannot be made from this time up to the close of the MOC process.

Extension: A rebid or reoffer made between 4:28.00 and 4:29.59 will trigger a 60-second extension period in order to adequately test that bid or offer.

Guidelines for the publication of bids and offers in the MOC process are published in the Petrochemicals Timing and Increment Guidelines available here: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/methodology-specifications/petrochemicals/petrochemicals-timing-and-increment-guidelines.

Full information relevant to these assessments can be found in the Asia-Pacific Petrochemicals guide here: /content/dam/spglobal/ci/en/documents/platts/en/our-methodology/methodology-specifications/Asia_Pacific_Petrochemicals.pdf.

Platts expects credit relationships that prevail inside its assessment environment to fully reflect relationships in the markets as a whole.

The eWindow provides direct entry and management of credit filters, which should mirror those normally applied in the marketplaces.

Where Platts editors publish bids and offers on behalf of a company that submits data to an editor, counterparty credit settings are set to "open" for regular participants in the assessment process unless companies have notified Platts in advance of any restrictions.

If a counterparty submitting information through an editor has not already notified Platts of any counterparty credit restrictions, it should notify Platts at least one hour prior to the start of the MOC process if any counterparty credit filters need to be modified.

Platts welcomes all feedback and questions to petchems@spglobal.com with a copy to pricegroup@spglobal.com. 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 comments not marked as confidential available upon request.