Platts defines publishing schedule for European balmo agriculture derivatives

S&P Global Platts has standardized the assessment schedule for balance-of-month (balmo) ethanol futures assessments so that they are only generated and used up to and including the 20th day of each month, effective May 7, 2020.

In addition to its six published calendar month ethanol futures assessments, Platts also assesses an internal balmo ethanol futures price, which is then used in conjunction with the front-month futures to generate an outright swaps curve.

This balmo contract settles on the average of Platts ethanol assessments still to be published over the remaining days in the current month.

This outright swaps curve is then used to calculate a theoretical forward curve known as the Mean of Platts (MOPL).

This is generated by taking the differential between the previous day's physical and paper assessments, and adding it to the relevant section of today's paper assessment.

The MOPL is one element that can contribute to the daily Platts ethanol assessment.

Physical indications are tested for value against the MOPL, as well as against other relevant information such as the previous day's assessment, in order to determine their competitiveness.

Platts currently assesses balmo ethanol futures each month until liquidity means this is no longer possible, at which point Platts uses the front and second months to build the curve.

Platts will now standardize this process so that the balance month swap is always used in the calculation of the MOPL up to and including the 20th day of the month, but not afterwards.

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Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available to the public upon requests.

Please send all questions and feedback to europe_ags@spglobal.com, with a CC to pricegroup@spglobal.com