Platts to change frequency of CFR India toluene assessment to daily

Following a period of market feedback, S&P Global Platts will change its weekly CFR India toluene assessment into a daily assessment, and launch a daily CFR India cash differential assessment against its existing FOB Korea toluene assessment from August 3, 2020.

The changes are in response to a shift in trading dynamics that Platts has observed in 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.

Platts first proposed the changes in a subscriber note published June 5, 2020, (https://bit.ly/3eE6orR).

Assessment frequency

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

Cash differential

Platts will also 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.

At the same time, Platts will change the delivery laycan, delivery ports, and add a minimum purity content of 99.5% to the quality specifications reflected for the CFR India assessment from August 3, 2020, as proposed in a subnote here: (https://bit.ly/2BGPn1A)

The weekly assessment currently 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. The daily assessment will continue to be published on these existing pages, in addition to page 218.

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

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