Further guidance on sanctions, embargoed material in S&P Global Commodity Insights' Platts price assessment processes

S&P Global Commodity Insights wishes to remind participants in its Platts price assessment processes of current published guidance regarding sanctions, embargoed material, statements around materials origin, and merchantability.

Platts only considers in its assessments commodities that are merchantable. Hence, buyers may assume that offers or transactions are for a commodity that is merchantable. Sellers must ensure their offers or transactions are for merchantable commodities. Merchantability may pertain to subsequent shipping and logistical issues for delivery and marketing of product.

Laws stating that nationals from specific countries may not buy products from embargoed countries may prevent market participants from lawfully executing transactions. A seller, therefore, may not assume that a buyer has the obligation to buy embargoed materials. Under Platts assessment guidelines, commodities supplied from countries or entities that are subject to trading embargoes and sanctions recognized under international law should not be delivered against transactions concluded during the MOC assessment processes.

Bids and offers that contain statements surrounding delivery of embargoed materials will be considered by Platts for publication, and if published after review may be subject to normalization in value. Furthermore, bids and offers for delivered material that contain statements surrounding origin may be considered by Platts for publication. Platts may not publish such statements if an origin exclusion is deemed unperformable or overly restrictive. Conversely, such indications may also not be published if the exclusion is implicit in the prevailing market standard. If published after review, origin exclusions may be subject to normalization in value.

For trades reported in the Platts Market on Close assessment process, material may not be unreasonably rejected and Platts will review any such instance.

This guidance is published online in Platts' overall methodology guide at https://www.spglobal.com/platts/plattscontent/_assets/_files/en/our-methodology/methodology-specifications/platts-assessments-methodology-guide.pdf, and can be found on Page 7 & 8.

Please send any questions and comments to 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.