SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to launch duty-unpaid Midwest aluminum assessments

S&P Global Platts will launch new assessments for implied duty-unpaid US Midwest aluminum P1020 values, as well as a daily calculated import duty assessment, effective August 1, 2018.

This decision follows a period of formal market consultation that began June 21, 2018.

As a result, these price assessments will be launched:

Aluminum P1020 US Import Duty cts/lb [MMOEU00]; $/mt [MMOHU00]

Aluminum P1020 MW US Transaction Premium (Implied Duty-Unpaid) delivered US Midwest cts/lb [MMOFU00]; $/mt [MMOIU00]

Aluminum P1020 Transaction Price (Implied Duty-Unpaid) delivered US Midwest cts/lb [MMOGU00]; $/mt [MMOJU00]

Aluminum US P1020 Duty Freight Factor $/mt [AFLSA00]; cts/lb [AFLSB00]

These new implied calculated assessments will be published alongside Platts existing CIF New Orleans duty-unpaid premium assessment, which was launched in February 2018 to provide insight into the value of aluminum trading on a duty-unpaid basis into the US.

The new price indicators also complement Platts benchmark Midwest US Transaction Premium and the US Midwest Transaction Price (all-in) assessments for P1020 aluminum, which are assessed on a delivered, duty-paid (DDP) basis, reflecting the delivered Midwest price of P1020 from all origins.

Platts will calculate on a daily basis an assessment of the value for the import tariff charged on US imports of primary aluminum.

This will be published in cents/lb as the "US Aluminum P1020 Import Duty". Platts will deduct this from the US Midwest Transaction Premium and the all-in Transaction Price assessments to generate the calculated duty-unpaid values for each, to be published in cents/lb as the "US Transaction Premium (Implied Duty-unpaid)" and "US Transaction Price (Implied Duty-unpaid)".

Platts will calculate the duty value by following these steps:

1) Deducting a factor equal to freights (land and sea) and handling charges from the US Midwest Transaction assessments to assess an implied FOB value

2) Dividing this by 1.1, which creates the "duty-unpaid FOB equivalent"

3) This value is then multiplied by 0.1 to generate the "US Aluminum P1020 Import Duty"

The methodology for determining the freight factor will be to add together inland US freight, sea freight and relevant loading and unloading charges. The freight factor will be used to net back to FOB Canada basis, which will be used as the basis for the duty calculations. Canada is the source of over 50% of US unwrought aluminum imports.

These assessments and their weekly and monthly averages will be published in Platts Metals Daily, Platts Metals Alert page 413, Platts Metals Week and Platts Metals Week Price Notification Monthly Report.

The freight and logistics factor will be published on page 2 of Metals Daily and in Platts Metals Alert 413 in $/mt and cents/lb.

Please submit any further feedback, comments or questions to Platts_Aluminum@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.