Platts to launch Houston delivered train ethanol assessment

S&P Global Platts will launch a Houston ethanol delivered train price assessment, effective Nov. 16, 2021.

Platts first proposed the new Houston rail assessment in a subscriber note published Sept. 1, 2021.

The delivered rail assessment will reflect spot domestic activity and bring greater transparency to the US Gulf Coast ethanol market.

The new assessment will reflect full unit trains of ethanol that are delivered into the Pasadena, Bayport, Texas City and Galveston terminals in the Houston area. The assessment will reflect trains arriving 15 to 30 days forward on a rolling basis. Buyers will have the option as to which terminal the train is delivered. Sellers will pay freight to the terminal.

Platts will publish this new assessment as both a flat price and as a differential to the Platts Ethanol Chicago derivative in cents/gallon. In the absence of flat price indications, the flat price assessment will consider the differential value applied to a price curve drawn using the balance-of-the-month swap and the forward month swap from the 1st-15th of the month and the forward month swap from the 16th through the end of the month.

In addition, Platts will assess the FOB Houston market as a spread to the delivered Houston rail assessment in the absence of FOB price indications. The rail-FOB spread will factor costs such as logistics, which Platts understands to typically be 3 cents/gal.

FOB Houston ethanol is published in the Platts database under AATGJ00.

Please send all feedback and questions to americas_ags@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.