Platts updates port baskets, renames India clean tanker assessments

S&P Global Platts has updated the basket of ports used in the dollar per metric ton calculations for its India-Singapore, India-Japan and India-South Korea Medium Range clean tanker assessments to fully reflect loadings from West Coast India ports and deliveries into South Korean ports, effective April 1, 2021.

Platts has also renamed these assessments to West Coast India-Singapore, West Coast India-Japan and West Coast India-South Korea; and its MR and LR clean tanker Arab Gulf-India and Red Sea-India assessments to Arab Gulf-West Coast India and Red Sea-West Coast India respectively, to better reflect the location of the Indian ports currently used in these routes.

Platts first proposed these changes in a subscriber note published Nov. 17, 2020. ( http://plts.co/pEGl30rrL63 ).

As of April 1, Platts has amended one of the load ports used in the flat rate calculations for the three India to Southeast Asia/North Asia routes to Mumbai, replacing Visakhapatnam on the east coast, as the west coast is a major oil products export hub.

Over December 2018 to early-November 2020, Platts observed 200 MR clean product shipments moving from Mumbai to Singapore, Japan and South Korea, according to data from Platts trade flow software cFlow. In comparison, the number of similar shipments from Visakhapatnam to the same countries totaled 104.

Platts has also added Yeosu to the basket of discharge ports in the India-South Korea route, bringing the number of South Korean discharge ports to three, from two currently, due to the significant volume of naphtha being delivered to major petrochemical complexes in Yeosu.

Following the changes to the port baskets, the new $/mt calculations are based on the average Worldscale flat rates for the following routes:

1. West Coast India-Singapore

Jamnagar-Singapore

New Mangalore-Singapore

Mumbai-Singapore

2. West Coast India-Japan

Jamnagar-Chiba

New Mangalore-Yokohama

Mumbai-Yokkaichi

3. West Coast India-South Korea

Jamnagar-Ulsan

New Mangalore-Daesan

Mumbai-Yeosu

Previously, the $/mt calculations were based on the average Worldscale flat rate for the following routes:

1. India-Singapore

Jamnagar-Singapore

New Mangalore-Singapore

Visakhapatnam-Singap ore

2. India-Japan

Jamnagar-Chiba

New Mangalore-Yokohama

Visakhapatnam-Yokkai chi

3. India-South Korea

Jamnagar-Ulsan

New Mangalore-Daesan

Visakhapatnam-Ulsan

The change in the assessment names of the Arab Gulf-India 35kt MR, Arab Gulf-India 55kt LR, and Red Sea-India 35kt MR clean tanker routes to Arab Gulf-West Coast India 35kt MR, Arab Gulf-West Coast India 55kt LR, and Red Sea-West Coast India 35kt MR, will better reflect the location the discharge ports are at, namely: Mumbai, New Mangalore and Jamnagar.

The affected assessments are:

New assessment name Daily code Month average code

Clean West Coast India-Japan 35kt MR $/mt TCAEE00 TCAEE03

Clean West Coast India-Japan 35kt MR Wsc TCAEF00 TCAEF03

Clean West Coast India-Singapore 35kt MR $/mt TCAEC00 TCAEC03

Clean West Coast India-Singapore 35kt MR Wsc TCAED00 TCAED03

Clean West Coast India-South Korea 35kt MR $/mt TCAEG00 TCAEG03

Clean West Coast India-South Korea 35kt MR Wsc TCAEH00 TCAEH03

Clean Arab Gulf-West Coast India 35kt MR $/mt TCAAF00 TCAAF03

Clean Arab Gulf-West Coast India 35kt MR Wsc PFABM10 PFABM03

Clean Arab Gulf-West Coast India 55kt LR $/mt TCAAG00 TCAAG03

Clean Arab Gulf-West Coast India 55kt LR Wsc PFAMG00 PFAPZ03

Clean Red Sea-West Coast India 35kt MR $/mt TCABI00 TCABI03

Clean Red Sea-West Coast India 35kt MR Wsc PFAMC00 PFAQQ03

These assessments appear in Clean Tankerwire, Monthly Clean Tankerwire, Oilgram Price Report and Latin American Wire; on Platts Shipping Alert pages 320 and 321, Platts Tanker Alert pages 2920 and 2921; and in the Platts price database under the codes above.

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