SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts merges US flat steel methodologies

S&P Global Platts has merged its price assessment process for the following three US-based steel mill products: hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC), hot dipped galvanized (HDG), effective October 2, 2017:

1) S&P Global Platts daily assessment of HRC EXW Indiana (STHRI00) with The Steel Index's daily HRC USA (FOB Midwest mill; TS01018)

2) S&P Global Platts daily assessment of USA CRC (EXW Indiana; STRR100) with TSI's weekly USA CRC (FOB Midwest mill; TS01005) Index

3) S&P Global Platts monthly assessment of USA HDG (EXW Midwest mill; SBO112) with TSI's weekly USA HDG (FOB Midwest mill; TS01010) Index

Platts will publish the HRC and CRC values on a daily basis and the HDG price series on a weekly basis.

This follows a period of market feedback which began June 9 when a subscriber note on the subject was published.

This includes a revision of the price calculation process to best reflect fair value in the market as well as a revision to the underlying specifications.

The combined price indices use a volume-weighted average calculation -- as per TSI's current standard -- to determine value on an EXW Indiana basis.

A volume-weighted average approach has proven particularly robust at valuing a market with diverse inland geographic steel mill locations.

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 will be published by 4:30 pm US Eastern time.

DATA PRESENTATION: Data collected from the market is published as "market heards" and as part of an assessment rationale -- to make all data used open to market scrutiny.

As a result, S&P Global Platts no longer receives submissions pursuant to the existing TSI Data Provider agreements for companies submitting to TSI's US HRC, CRC, and HDG indices.

Platts is now publishing a single value, which would reflect the volume-weighted average of data collected throughout the day subject to Platts editorial guidelines.

The single value will be rounded to the nearest $0.25/st. Platts will retain all product codes.

INDEX/ASSESSMENT NAME: In light of these proposed changes, Platts will change the name of the price indices to the following: 1) Platts TSI US HRC EXW Indiana 2) Platts TSI US CRC EXW Indiana 3) Platts TSI US HDG EXW Indiana

Please submit any feedback, comments or questions 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.