SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to publish European CP indicator for benzene

S&P Global Platts has decided to publish a month-ahead price indicator for the European benzene contract price effective November 14 on daily basis to give manufacturers and consumers a clearer idea of future contract price changes for benzene. The indicator is a simple rolling five-day average of Platts' most recent assessment for benzene for delivery in the following month.

Specifically, Platts will use the M1 CIF ARA benzene spot price [AAOQQ00] in its calculations in the last five working days of the month. All other times the contract price indicator would be calculated on the basis of M2 CIF ARA price [AAOQR00]. This reflects the time at which the M1 assessment rolls from the existing month to the following month.

Platts has backchecked the quantitative model and found that in 84% of all settlements in the past five years the model predicted values that were within $10/mt of the industry-negotiated CP price on the day the latter settled. The average price difference between the indicator and the CP price over the same time period was $1.36/mt.

Please send any comments and queries to pl_petchems_ln@spglobal.com.