Platts makes changes to several North Appalachia, Illinois basin thermal coal assessments

S&P Global Platts has made several changes to the US thermal coal coverage including discontinuation of three assessments in Northern Appalachia and Illinois basin, a launch of one new assessment in the Illinois basin and a change of publication frequency of another two assessments, effective April 26, 2021.

Platts originally proposed the changes on Jan. 11 (https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/011121-platts-proposes-changes-to-weekly-daily-otc-thermal-coal-assessments) and published its decision on Feb 25 (https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/022521-platts-to-change-weekly-daily-otc-thermal-coal-assessments).

NORTHERN APPALACHIA: Due to a lack of liquidity, Platts has discontinued the prompt quarter Northern Appalachia Pittsburgh Seam 13,000 Btu/lb GAR, 3.0 lbs SO2/MMBtu, FOB rail assessment (CPAQ001). The assessment was previously published weekly in Coal Trader in the Weekly Price Survey, and on Platts Global Coal Alert (GCA) page 200. Platts continues to assess prompt quarter Northern Appalachia Pittsburgh Seam 13,000 Btu/lb GAR, 4 lbs SO2/MMBtu FOB rail coal (CNDQ001).

ILLINOIS BASIN: Platts made the following changes to its Illinois Basin assessments:

• Platts has discontinued the daily prompt month US OTC 11,800 Btu/lb, 5 lbs. SO2/MMBtu, max 0.35% chlorine FOB barge coal assessment (CTPM001) due to changes in liquidity.
• It was replaced by a new, daily prompt month US OTC 11,500 Btu/lb, 5 lbs. SO2/MMBtu, max 0.35% chlorine FOB barge coal assessment (CISM001).
• Platts has started publishing the current prompt-quarter weekly Illinois Basin 11,500 Btu/lb GAR, max 0.35% chlorine FOB barge assessment (CISQ001) on a daily basis.
• The daily prompt quarter US OTC 11,800 Btu/lb, 5 lbs. SO2/MMBtu, max 0.35% chlorine FOB barge coal assessment (CTPQ001) has been converted to a weekly price, to publish each Friday in the Weekly Price Survey table.
• Platts discontinued the simple and rolling averages of the two Illinois Basin daily assessments (derived from CTPM001 and CTPQ001 and published under the following codes: CUOTC00, CTPHP05, CTOTC00, and CTPHP03).
• The weekly prompt quarter Illinois Basin 11,800 Btu/lb GAR, 5 lbs. SO2/MMBtu, max 0.2% chlorine FOB barge (CIJQ001) was discontinued.

The changes are summarized in the table below:

The abovementioned changes have affected all related calculations. The affected prices are published in Coal Trader, on Platts Global Coal Alert (GCA) page 200 and 210 and are in the Platts price database under the codes listed above.

Please address any questions or comments to coal@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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