Platts to launch premium met coal assessments

Following a period of consultation with the industry, Platts will launch on October 1, 2010, new daily spot market price assessments of hard coking coal (metallurgical coal) of Premium Low Vol quality specification, basis FOB Australia, CFR China and CFR India.

The hard coking coal (HCC) of Premium Low Vol assessment will be normalized to a typical grade with the following properties: coke strength after reaction (CSR) of 71%, volatile matter (VM) of 21.5% air dried; ash of 9.3% air dried; sulfur (S) of 0.50% air dried; phosphorous (P) of 0.045% air dried; total moisture (TM) of 9.7% as received; and fluidity of 500 ddpm.

Other spot cargoes of hard coking coal meeting minimum premium quality standards (CSR of 67-74%; 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 published HCC Premium Low Vol specification.

HCC Premium Low Vol assessments reflect the value of premium 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 (1030 GMT). The assessments will be published in Platts Steel Markets Daily, Platts Coal Trader International, on the real-time service Platts Metals Alert p 1051 and will also be available via Dispatch categories FA, CI and MC.

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

To view Platts metallurgical coal methodology and specifications guide, please paste into your browser the following link: http://www.platts.com/IM.Platts.Content/MethodologyReferences/MethodologySpe cs/metcoalmethod.pdf or http://bit.ly/metcoalmethod