Platts proposes to launch butadiene FOB China assessment Dec. 1, 2022

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, is proposing to launch a daily spot butadiene assessment on FOB China basis, effective Dec. 1, 2022.

The proposal follows Platts observation of rising exports from China over the past two years.

Platts has observed that China has been an active butadiene exporter in recent years, with South Korea being the main export destination. According to South Korea's customs data, the country's butadiene imports from China stood at 131,164 mt in 2021, reflecting a jump from 25,232 mt in 2020. Over Jan-Aug 2022, South Korea imported 54,765 mt from China, the data showed.

Under the proposal, the new assessment would be based on the latest information sourced from the market up to the close of the assessment process at 4:30 pm Singapore time (0830 GMT). The assessment would be published in $/mt and would follow the Singapore publishing schedule.

The new assessment would reflect the product with the following parameters:

Volume: 2,000-3,000 mt size cargoes

Quality: Minimum purity of 99.5%. Dimer content, maximum 1,000 ppm.

Timing: Loading 20-40 days forward from the date of publication

Location basis: FOB China, basis Ningbo, Zhoushan, Zhenhai, Shanghai ports. Platts would also take into consideration pricing information from northern China's Tianjin, Panjin and Dalian ports, but would normalize them to East China ports for the assessment.

Payment terms: Letter of credit up to 30 days. For deals with the usance of greater than 30 days, the value of the extra credit allowance would be factored out for the assessment.

Pricing information for material with other specifications and terms may be normalized to the proposed standard.

The new assessment would be published alongside Platts' existing butadiene assessments in the Olefinscan as well as on the Platts real-time petrochemical service, Platts Market Center, and Platts Dimensions Pro.

Please send all comments, feedback and questions to petchems@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Oct. 21, 2022.

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.