Platts launches Kalimantan 4200 price assessment
Wednesday, August 29 2012 - 12:27 AM WIB
Platts, a leading source of benchmark price assessments in energy, petrochemicals and metals, has launched a new price assessment for Indonesia-loaded thermal coal cargoes.
Known as Platts Kalimantan 4200, the new assessment reflects the commercial and merchantable value of thermal coals loading free-on-board (FOB) in Kalimantan, Indonesia, one week to 45 days forward.
Platt said in its statement that the new assessment would be applied to coal with an energy-producing caloric value of 4200 kilocalories per kilogram, total sulfur content of 0.6%, typical ash content of 7% and total moisture of 35%, on an as-received basis. Minimum cargo size reflected is 60,000 metric tons.
"With coal from Colombia and the U.S. flooding into Asia, we believe the Kalimantan 4200 provides the Asia-Pacific market with a key in-region barometer of thermal coal values," James O'Connell, Platts senior managing editor, international coal said.
"In particular, India and China, both with aggressive power plant builds underway, will likely find it an important valuation tool."
Platts first introduced Indonesian-focused thermal coal assessments more than 10 years ago with the launch of its higher calorific Kalimantan 5900 and Kalimantan 5000 assessments.
Both of these assessments are widely referenced by the international market and the Kalimantan 5900 forms part of Indonesia's Harga Batubara Acuan (HBA), the government's formula for pricing coal for domestic consumption.
India and China, though major producers of coal, are also the world's largest importers of the commodity.
"Demand for low calorific thermal coal has surged to a 100 million-metric-ton market since the global financial crisis as countries with growing populations have chased after cheaper coal and more cost-effective electricity production," O'Connell explained.
Lower calorific coals do not burn as clean as higher calorific coals, but they tend to be more economical, he added.
The Platts Kalimantan 4200 assessment will be published in the daily Platts Coal Trader International, in Platts Market Data-Coal, a flexible format, end-of-day data service and in real-time news service, Platts European Power Alert.
Editing by Adianto P. Simamora