Platts launches Houston delivered train ethanol assessment

S&P Global Platts has launched 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 brings spot domestic activity and bring greater transparency to the US Gulf Coast ethanol market.

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

Platts publishes 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 considers 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 assesses the FOB Houston market as a spread to the delivered Houston rail assessment in the absence of FOB price indications. The rail-FOB spread factors costs such as logistics, which Platts understands to typically be 3 cents/gal.

The new symbols are:

AABFE00 - Ethanol Dlvd Rail Houston 15-30 days

AABFE03 - Ethanol Dlvd Rail Houston 15-30 days MAvg

AACFF00 - Ethanol Dlvd Rail Houston Differential to Chicago Swap

The assessments are published in the Platts price database under the codes listed above. The assessments appear in Biofuelscan, the Fuel Ethanol Report and on Platts Biofuels Alert pages PBF0010, PBF0210, PBF0011 and PBF0212.

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.