Platts launches assessments for Brand Adjustments for main medium-grade iron ore fines

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, has launched assessments for Brand Adjustments applied to each of the five main medium-grade iron ore brands that inform its IODEX CFR China iron ore benchmark, effective April 1, 2026. The brand adjustments have been backfilled to Jan. 2, 2026.

The five brands are: Pilbara Blend Fines, Brazilian Blend Fines, Newman High Grade Fines, Mining Area C Fines and Jimblebar Fines.

The launch responds to market feedback indicating a need for tracking the brand adjustments as standalone symbols, which have so far been reported in the daily iron ore assessment rationales as "additional brand spreads" whenever their values have changed.

The Brand Adjustment represents the difference in value observed for each brand relative to the IODEX basis specifications, arising from factors other than chemical specifications and delivery timing.

These factors may include a brand's physical and metallurgical properties, consistency of quality and other market factors.

Platts methodology normalizes each datapoint for differences in chemical specifications using a pro rata adjustment for iron content, and its suite of impurity differential assessments for alumina, silica and phosphorus. Platts also normalizes for delivery timing using its Physical Structure assessment (IODBS00) to the IODEX basis specifications. The brand adjustments reflect the value of any additional price difference observed.

The brand adjustments complement Platts existing suite of fixed- and floating-price brand assessments for the five main medium-grade fines, providing the market with unparalleled transparency into the pricing of each brand and how they relate to the IODEX CFR China benchmark for physical iron ore and the front-month derivative.

The Brand Adjustments are rounded off to the nearest 5 cents/dmt and appear in Platts SBB Steel Markets Daily, on pages 0140 and 0141 of Platts Metals Alert and Platts Steel Alert, and in the Platts price database under the following symbols:

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