Colombia adopts Argus coking coal and freight assessments in volatile market

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Jan 20, 2015, 10:44 ET

BOGOTA, Colombia, Jan. 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Colombia's mining regulatory agency ANM has started pricing coking coal for royalty calculations using price assessments published by global energy and commodity news and price reporting agency Argus. This expands Colombia's innovative use of market-based tax calculations to the coking coal sector and is joined by enhanced use of Argus indexation in the thermal coal tax formula.

Colombian authorities will begin using Argus fob Colombia coking coal price assessments to calculate market values for export shipments from the country's coal mines. Colombia's market-based pricing will benefit all stakeholders in the country's coal industry during a period of historically low prices. The Colombian programme will provide relief for producers while coal prices are low, keeping these industries competitive in international markets. And it will ensure that the Colombian sector benefits when coking coal prices recover.

Argus exclusively publishes these fob Colombia coking coal price assessments, which Latin America's coal markets have rapidly adopted for robust, reliable price indexation. The assessments are published in Argus Steel Feedstocks, a service covering coking coal, iron ore and ferrous scrap markets around the world.

Argus freight assessments have also been incorporated into Colombia's coal royalties for thermal coal produced in the central region of the country, joining the Argus/IHS McCloskey API 2 index for this calculation. Argus' assessment of Panamax rates from Colombia to Rotterdam will be used to calculate a netback price from the northwest Europe trading hub. These freight assessments are available in Argus Coal Daily International and Argus Freight.

"Argus price assessments are used extensively by governments as independent references for taxation and other purposes," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. "We fully expect other growing and liberalising economies in Latin America to take similar steps in the near future."

Colombia is one of the top coal exporters in the world, and is the third-biggest exporter of coking coal in the Americas. Coking coal is used to make metallurgical coke, which is a feedstock in primary steel production.

Argus coal price assessments are widely used in physical and derivative contracts around the world. Its transparent price assessment methodology has been increasingly adopted throughout the Americas and globally. Argus price assessments are used by major energy producers and consumers as price references in long-term supply contracts, and by market participants for portfolio mark-to-market, counterparty exposure management, derivatives and a wide range of investment and market analysis purposes.

Request more information on Argus fob Colombia coking coal, freight rates and other Argus price assessments.

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About Argus Media

Argus is an independent media organisation with more than 700 full time staff. It is headquartered in London and has offices in each of the world's principal commodity centres. Its main activities comprise publishing market reports containing price assessments, market commentary and news, and business intelligence reports that analyse market and industry trends.

More than half of Argus employees are commodity journalists who specialise in reporting news and price information relating to physical energy and related commodity markets. They operate according to a rigorous Editorial Code of Conduct and a compliance and ethics policy that align with best journalistic practice, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

Argus is a leading provider of data on prices and fundamentals, news, analysis, consultancy services and conferences for the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer, petrochemical, metals and transportation industries. Data provided by Argus are widely used for indexation of physical trade. Companies, governments and international agencies use Argus information for analysis and planning purposes.

Argus has 19 offices globally, including London, Houston, Washington, New York, Calgary, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Moscow, Astana and other key centres of the commodity industries. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.

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