Platts to launch USGC-Tampa/Port Everglades Medium Range clean tanker Jones Act freight assessments Nov. 1

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will launch two daily spot-equivalent 38,000 mt Medium Range clean tanker Jones Act freight assessments on the US Gulf Coast-to-Tampa/Port Everglades routes, effective Nov. 1, to provide transparency into domestic maritime shipping markets.

The proposal note for the assessment launch was first published Sept. 8 and can be referenced here.

Since Jones Act freight trading is almost exclusively transacted on a term charter basis, the freight assessments will reflect spot-equivalent lump sum and $/mt freight values based on transactional term charter rates, adding round-trip bunker and port costs from the USGC to Tampa, West Coast Florida, and Port Everglades, East Coast Florida.

The new assessments are:

The load port basket and discharge ports, average port charges, vessel speed and bunker consumption to be utilized in the spot-equivalent freight assessments are arrived at by extensive market survey and reflect market practice.

On the 38,000 mt USGC-Tampa and USGC-Port Everglades routes, the spot-equivalent freight assessments will factor in:

• Term charter rates on a $/d basis, multiplied by the number of round-trip voyage days
• Voyage distance on a round-trip basis
• Average load port costs at Houston, Lake Charles, New Orleans and Pascagoula
• Discharge port costs at Tampa and Port Everglades
• Average delivered 0.1% sulfur marine gas oil bunker costs at the main bunkering ports of Houston and New Orleans, as assessed by Platts on a daily basis under the codes AAWWX00 and AAWYA00, respectively
• Voyage speed of 14 knots for both laden and ballast legs at a bunker consumption of 32 mt/d and 30 mt/d, respectively
• Bunker consumption of 5 mt/d for two loading days and one idle day per round trip, and 18 mt/d during two days of discharge

The new assessments will be published in the Platts Clean Tankerwire and the Platts Clean Tankerwire Monthly; on the Platts Shipping Alert pages SHP 2320, SHP 2321, and the Platts Tanker Alert pages PGT 1912, PGT 1913.

Please send all comments or questions to shipping@spglobal.com and pricegroup@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 to the public upon request.