Platts introduces world-first daily coal price assessments

The two assessments, reflecting hard coking coal loading in Australia for any destination and delivered into China from any potential source, complement both Platts’ existing monthly coking coal assessments published in International Coal Report and Platts’ IODEX iron ore assessments published in Steel Markets Daily. The latter provides greater transparency into pricing in the steelmaking supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region.
“These new assessments, along with a dry bulk freight price from Australia to China, allow us to deepen our analysis of blast furnace economics, particularly those in China,” said Platts global director of steel Francis Browne. “It’s our hope the price transparency provided by Platts for this vital steel making ingredient will meet the global industry’s need for comparative valuations of coking and other metallurgical coals,” said Browne.
Platts’ Hard Coking Coal FOB Australia and Hard Coking Coal CFR China assessments will capture the value in US dollars per dry metric ton ($/dmt) of hard coking coal loading free on board (FOB) in key Queensland, Australia ports and cargoes delivered on a cost and freight (CFR) basis to main Chinese ports.
Platts will also launch a daily dry bulk freight assessment representing the cost of freight for cargoes carried on Panamax class vessels from Australia to China as a normalisation guide in the coking coal price assessment process.
All three assessments will be published in Steel Markets Daily, Coal Trader International, International Coal Report, and on the real-time service Platts’ Metals Alert.
Both of the new hard coking coal assessments reflect quality of 64 per cent minimum coke strength after reduction, 9 per cent maximum air dried ash, and 25.5 per cent maximum air dried volatile matter, with recognised “premium” hard and hard coking coals of differing quality normalised to the Platts quality and specification guidelines as outlined in its methodology.
“The addition of daily metallurgical coking coal assessments for Australia and China adds further clarity and transparency to this growing market,” said James O’Connell, Platts international coal managing editor.
“These assessments also introduce a rigorous evaluation of differing but commonly-used qualities of metallurgical coal in order to be inclusive of more market activity and reflect a common transactional basis,” he said.
Platts’ metallurgical coal price assessment methodologies have been developed in consultation with a cross section of key industry players and draw upon Platts’ century of experience in benchmark price reporting in the energy markets.
For more than 35 years, Platts has also reported on the broader supply/demand fundamentals of metals, continuing the tradition of its parent company, The McGraw-Hill Companies, which has covered the metals markets for more than 75 years.

To learn more about Platts’ price assessment process and other available Platts products and services, visit: www.platts.com