Platts proposes to transition Brazil biodiesel contract fee indexes to volume-weighted average Sept. 1

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, proposes to transition the calculation methodology for its Brazil biodiesel term contract fee indexes from a simple average to a volume-weighted average, effective Sept. 1, 2026.

The proposal follows feedback received from market participants and reflects evolving trade flows in the Brazilian biodiesel term contract market. Platts understands that this segment accounts for approximately 90% of total transacted volumes, with the spot market representing the remainder. Transitioning to a volume-weighted averaging methodology would enhance transparency and more accurately represent trading levels across each two-month period.

Under this proposal, region-specific term contract fees and corresponding volumes negotiated for each two-month period, submitted by market participants, would be used to calculate a bi-monthly volume-weighted average fee for each specified region.

Platts would continue to review submitted information and may contact submitters for clarification on potentially anomalous data. Platts may also exclude data from the assessment calculation where it determines that such data is not representative of market value.

The assessments would continue to be published on the first business day of each two-month period (January, March, May, July, September, and November). The cutoff for data submission would remain at 13:00 Sao Paulo time on the last working day of the preceding two-month period.

The proposed transition would affect the following assessments:

Biodiesel contracts calculated price

In addition to publishing two-month contract fees, Platts calculates and publishes daily ex-works contract price assessments, along with related weekly and monthly averages, derived from the contract fees described above. In addition to the fees, these calculations incorporate Chicago Board of Trade soybean oil futures, the Platts Paranaguá vegetable oil differential, and adjustments for biodiesel density and the Brazilian real–US dollar exchange rate.

Under this proposal, the following calculated contract price assessments would also incorporate the updated volume-weighted fee instead of the simple average fee:

Brazil biodiesel term contract prices and fees are published in Energy Core, Biofuelscan and Biomass-based Diesel reports and appear on fixed pages PBF 0005 and PBF 0010.

Please send all feedback, comments or questions to platts_biofuels@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by July 17.

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 upon request.