Platts launching new met coal assessment on August 23

After an extended period of market engagement and feedback, effective Monday, August 23, Platts will launch daily spot market price assessments of hard coking coal (metallurgical coal) of Peak Downs quality specification, basis FOB Australia, CFR China and CFR India.

Hard coking coal (HCC) of Peak Downs specification has the following typical properties: coke strength after reaction (CSR) of 74%, volatile matter (VM) of 20.7% air dried; ash of 9.7% air dried; sulfur (S) of 0.70% air dried; phosphorous (P) of 0.035% air dried; total moisture (TM) of 9.5% as received; and maximum fluidity of 400 ddpm.

Other spot cargoes of high-quality hard coking coal meeting minimum quality standards (CSR of at least 67% and maximum dilatation of at least 50%; VM range 18.8-24.5%) will be normalized by daily spot market analysis and value-in-use analysis to the HCC Peak Downs specification.

HCC Peak Downs assessments reflect the value of high-quality hard coking coal shipments loading FOB Australia main ports (normalized to Hay Point port in Queensland) for any destination and for delivery into China (normalized to Qingdao port in North China) and into India (normalized to Paradip port in East India).

Platts already publishes daily dry bulk freight assessments for Panamax class vessels from Australia to China and to India. Close-of-market data for assessments is 18:30 Singapore time (10:30 GMT).

Please address any comments or questions to cokingcoal@platts.com.

To view Platts metallurgical coal methodology and specifications guide, please visit the following link: http://www.platts.com/IM.Platts.Content/MethodologyReferences/MethodologySpec s/metcoalmethod.pdf or http://bit.ly/metcoalmethod