05 Jun 2020 | 08:00 UTC — London

Platts proposes changing frequency of CFR India toluene to daily assessment, launching new cash differential assessment

S&P Global Platts is proposing to change its weekly CFR India toluene assessment into a daily assessment and to launch a daily CFR India cash differential assessment against its existing FOB Korea toluene assessment from August 3, 2020.

The changes proposed by Platts are in response to a shift in trading dynamics that Platts has observed into the Indian toluene market over the last few years, amid rising imports into the South Asian country. In the last fiscal year (April 2018-March 2019), India imported 438,055 mt of toluene, up 5.77% from the year-ago period, data from India's Export-Import Bank showed. Over April 2019-January 2020, the country imported 357,518 mt of toluene.

ASSESSMENT FREQUENCY

Platts is proposing to assess CFR India toluene on a daily basis at the close of Asian trade at 4:30 pm Singapore time (0830 GMT), in view of greater liquidity into India. Currently, the CFR India assessment is a weekly assessment published every Friday at the 4:30 pm close.

CASH DIFFERENTIAL

Platts is also proposing to launch a daily CFR India cash differential assessment, in response to the greater number of bids, offers, trades and indications heard on a floating price basis. The cash differential will reflect the value of the CFR India assessment above the Platts daily FOB Korea toluene marker (daily price database code PHASO05) at the 4:30 pm close.

The assessment appears in Asian Petrochemicalscan and Platts Petrochemical Alert pages 235, 326, 436 and 449 under the price database code AAVBQ04 and monthly average price database code of AAVBQ03.

Please send any feedback, comments or questions to pricegroup@spglobal.com and petchems@spglobal.com by June 26.

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