Platts to resume publication of one Black Sea dry bulk freight assessment April 3, increase number of acceptable loading ports

Due to increased spot activity in the Black Sea Handysize dry bulk shipping market, and the renewal of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grains Initiative effective March 17, Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will rename and resume publishing one dry bulk freight assessment from April 3, 2023.

The affected assessment is:

DRY BULK FREIGHT: Assessment Name Code MAvg

PH24 Grains Nikolaev, Ukraine to Alexandria, Egypt, 25kt GRUAE00 GRUAE03

The assessment will be renamed to:

PH24 Grains Northwest Black Sea to Alexandria, Egypt, 25kt GRUAE00 GRUAE03

The assessment will keep most of its former specifications as published in the S&P Global Freight Methodology guide; however, cargoes lifted from a wider pool of Northwest Black Sea loading ports including but not limited to the three key Ukrainian ports specified by the Black Sea Grain Initiative Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi will be included in the assessment.

Based on market feedback, Platts understands the Handysize $/mt freight values from each of these Northwest Black Sea ports to Alexandria, Egypt, to be closely aligned, and more dependent on individual trades than on the choice of loading port.

Platts suspended the publication of bids, offers, trades and indicative market values for commodities loading or delivering in the Black Sea on Feb. 24, 2022, due to uncertainty regarding the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/022422-platts-to-suspend-publication-of-market-information-for-black-sea-markets

The affected dry bulk assessments have remained suspended since that date. Platts welcomes feedback on the future of any impacted assessments.

Please send any questions and comments to shipping@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.