Expanding its portfolio of products dedicated to shipping, Platts, a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information, has launched Platts Dry Freight Wire, a daily report that consolidates all of Platts’ prices, news and market commentary related to dry commodity shipping. The new market report, which debuted on June 25, complements three longstanding Platts publications that provide similar coverage of crude oil, refined products, petrochemicals and other liquid commodity shipping.
“Platts Dry Freight Wire responds to increased spot market volatility and use of index-linked physical freight deals. Targeted to ship owners, charterers and trading houses, it addresses the market’s growing need for an independent source of daily dry freight prices backed by a sound methodology,” said Peter Norfolk, Platts’ director of global freight. “As a central source for Platts’ prices and commentary across commodities and vessel size, it gives subscribers the information and insights to establish independent prices for term contracts, negotiate deals at the best price and analyze the price movements of specific freight routes.”
The report, published as a PDF at the close of the London day, contains 108 dry freight rate assessments covering iron ore, coking and thermal coal, steel, sugar, grains, polymers and alumina. Of the total, 68 assessments are new and exclusively published in Platts Dry Freight Wire. Commentary is featured for all major vessel sizes – Capesize, Panamax, Supramax, Handymax and Handysize.
The assessments, which are reported on a dollar-per-ton basis, are underpinned by a robust methodology which includes a description of the ship, as well as the definition of the cargo size. The assessment process involves daily surveys of ship owners, charterers, dry bulk trade analysts and brokers which take into account indications, bids and offers. For a full description of the methodology, please see Platts’ shipping methodology and specifications document on Platts.com.
Platts Dry Freight Wire is designed to serve as a convenient and easily accessible way for subscribers to reference and use Platts’ prices. For example, an overview of market activity on page 1 offers a quick glance at key prices for the dry freight market and provides immediate visibility of key price movements. Prices and commentary by ship size appear on subsequent pages, followed by market news, “heards” (i.e. price information reported to Platts by market participants), weekly container rates and the latest vessel fixtures.
Platts Dry Freight Wire rounds out Platts’ portfolio of shipping publications and underscores its commitment to expanding coverage of the global metals, agriculture and petrochemicals markets. Platts’ other shipping reports – Bunkerwire, Clean Tankerwire and Dirty Tankerwire – cover the crude oil and petroleum products markets which have been Platts’ focus for more than 100 years.
To learn about Platts Dry Freight Wire, see the first issue and request a trial subscription, please visit www.platts.com/products/dry-freight-wire. To view a video about the new publication, please click here.
