Platts to amend basket for Americas VLCC Brazil/Uruguay-China dirty tanker assessment June 3

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will amend the flat rate basket for the 260,000 mt Brazil/Uruguay-China assessment effective June 3 to better reflect spot market fixtures and indications.

Platts understands that spot fixtures typically negotiated on a 260,000 mt basis for this route solely load at Brazil ports. Therefore, to best represent spot activity, the basket will no longer include Uruguay as a load port and will be replaced with Porto do Acu. In 2023, Brazil-loading vessels saw a 98% market share on the run, with Uruguay-loading vessels only making up 2%. Porto do Acu has also shifted to the port holding the majority of Brazil crude loaded on the run, followed by Tebig Terminal.

Additionally, Platts will exclude the discharge port Rizhao as it has not received crude oil from a Brazil-loading VLCC since 2020.

The new basket will represent the average of four port-to-port combinations: Porto do Acu-Qingdao, Porto do Acu-Ningbo, Tebig Terminal-Qingdao and Tebig Terminal-Ningbo.

The amendment will affect the following:

Assessment, code:

Brazil-Uruguay/China cargo size TDAUKSZ

Brazil-Uruguay/China Wsc TDAUK00

Brazil-Uruguay/China Wsc $/mt TDAUL00

Brazil-Uruguay/China Wsc mAvg TDAUK03

Brazil-Uruguay/China $/mt mAvg TDAUL03

These assessments appear on Platts Global Alert page 1972, on Platts Shipping Alert page 2440, in the Dirty Tankerwire and in the Platts price database under the codes above.

Please send any comments or questions to shipping@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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