SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to merge Platts, TSI US steel plate prices

S&P Global Platts will combine the price assessment process for two US-based steel plate price series. Platts will change the methodology of these two steel plate prices.

This follows a period of market feedback, which started with the publication of a subscriber note on July 18, 2017.

The majority of these changes will be carried out November 1, 2017.

This subscriber note relates to the following TSI-branded price series: TSI Plate USA Domestic Production FOB Midwest Mill Weekly (TS01025)

This subscriber note relates to the following Platts-branded price series: Platts Steel Plate ex-works US Southeast $/st Daily (STPR100)

US Steel Plate: Platts will change the incoterm reflected in its US Steel Plate assessment (STPR100) to delivered Midwest from ex-works Southeast to best reflect trading patterns in the underlying market from January 2, 2018.

Steel plate mills have traditionally normalized prices to a delivered basis to remain competitive in regions where they have no production presence. This change will be made later than the others to avoid causing potential inconvenience to contractual usage of this assessment. The change in incoterm will necessitate a name change of the assessment itself, which will be renamed "Platts TSI Steel Plate Delivered US Midwest."

The following changes will be made from November 1, 2017: -Platts will discontinue the TSI-branded steel plate code TS01025, but will retain the Platts-branded code STPR100.

-Platts will increase its quantity order size to 20 st minimum from 5 st and maintain delivery window of 4-12 weeks and dimensions to 96 inches width, 0.375-2 inches thickness and to 240 inches length.

-Prices will be assessed daily. These price series would use a volume-weighted average calculation -- as per TSI's current standard -- to determine value on an ex-works Southeast basis.

DATA PRESENTATION: Data collected from the market will be published as "market heards" and in market commentaries -- to make all data used open to market scrutiny. As a result, S&P Global Platts will no longer receive submissions pursuant to the existing TSI Data Provider agreements for companies submitting to TSI's US steel indices.

Platts will publish all price series covered in this subscriber note as a single value.

The single values will be rounded to the nearest $0.25/st.

DATA COLLECTION: Platts will collect transactional data (including deals, firm bids, offers and indicative values) until 3:30 pm US Eastern time.

The data will be collected by surveying active market participants, while any market participant will also be able to submit data to the TSI price reporting portal. The indices would be published at 4:30 pm US Eastern time.

DATA USAGE: In terms of data inclusion, transactions will be weighted highest, followed by bids and offers in the volume-weighted average calculations.

As well as transactions, bids and offers, Platts will consider the use of indicative values collected from active market participants across the supply chain in determining market value in its TSI-branded codes as well, thereby increasing data collection in periods of illiquidity.

FEEDBACK: Please submit any feedback, comments or questions on this subject to pricemethodology@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.